Old Grudges
by Nightgazer13
Summary: Sonic and the others run into an old enemy with horrible new powers. Will they be able to defeat this new threat, or will the Metal Empire rule? Based very loosely on Sonic Heroes, with other games thrown in. Sequal to New Growth. Rated T just in case.
1. Live Again

**Live Again**

"I've done it!" Eggman shouted, "I've finally created a weapon that can stop Sonic cold!"

"I've heard that one before," Bokkun teased "What makes this one so special?"

"Oh-ho, you'll find out soon enough!" Replied the doctor, ignoring his minion's sleight, "Now I just need to find the proper robot to place it on..." The doctor searched through the database of his creations, looking for something that would be powerful enough to create the desired effect. He stopped when he came to one of his older projects. This would do nicely.

"That old thing?" Bokkun asked, "I thought you retired him long ago!"

"I've been working on some improvements. It's sort of a pet project I've been tinkering with. I think it's time I tried it out!" Eggman grabbed a communicator and started barking order: "Bocoe! Decoe! Bring me the capsule containing Metal Sonic!"

* * *

It was a beautiful day outside, and Sonic had decided to get in a morning run before getting ready for the trip. It was mostly to calm his nerves. Sonic didn't like the fact that they would be traveling by boat, but he wasn't about to let that stop him from going on vacation with his friends. Sonic's thoughts were violently interrupted when he was suddenly hit by something from his right.

It took everything he had to keep control of himself so he wouldn't skid across the ground on his face. When he was finally able to stop safely, Sonic looked over to see what had hit him. The thing he saw in front of him was vaguely familiar, but also very different. It was a blue robot just a bit taller than sonic, with five large spines decorating its head. It wore a black cape around its waist, had glowing, blood-red eyes, and almost looked like…

"Metal? Seriously!? Wow, Egghead sure gave you a makeover!" Sonic said, amazed.

"I think you'll find that more than my appearance has changed, Sonic," the machine replied. Indeed, many things had been upgraded. His previous form had not even been capable of true speech, communicating through mechanical clicks and beeps.

"Well, seems to me you're here to party," Sonic laughed, "so let's go!" The two speed demons flew at each other, each trying to land a high-speed attack while dodging those of their opponent. Finally, sonic managed to land a homing attack, but found that his double had an unfair advantage. Metal Sonic's hands shot up and a black force field appeared to protect him from Sonic's attack.

"Hey, no fair!" Sonic shouted. If he had lips, Metal Sonic would have smiled evilly. He _had_ warned his counterpart that things had changed. With renewed vigor, the two flew at each other again to continue their fight.

Sonic was beginning to wear down, but he knew that his mechanical double still had plenty of fight in him. He also knew that Metal probably had a few other tricks up his sleeve. Eggman had definitely improved the robot's design. Sonic finally decided that it was time to take out the big guns. "Let's see how you handle this, Metal!" Sonic yelled as he took out the seven Chaos Emeralds. Unfortunately for Sonic, this was exactly what Metal Sonic had been waiting for. As Sonic attempted to transform into Super Sonic, Metal unleashed the doctor's secret weapon. A sphere of dark energy radiated from Metal Sonic's core, and the Chaos Emeralds reacted badly to it. They sparked and flared and flashed wildly, and instead of strengthening energy a wave of intense pain flowed from the gems that Sonic was helpless to stop. For a moment he thought he would be torn apart by the Emeralds' uncontrollable power, but just as Sonic thought he wouldn't be able to take any more, the Chaos Emeralds flew apart as if they were repulsed by one another. The blue blur collapsed, completely exhausted from the pain.

Metal Sonic was quite pleased with the outcome of the battle. Eggman's weapon had caused the Emeralds to backfire just as he'd said it would, and now the machine was free to be rid of his flesh and blood counterpart once and for all. He raised his clawed hand, fully intent on ripping the hedgehog's throat out. Before he could, though, he received a transmission from Eggman. "I'm glad to see that my weapon was such a success! Leave Sonic and return to base. We have to find those Emeralds!"

Leave Sonic? When his nemesis was on the brink of death? Not a chance! He brought his claw down swiftly, and was just about to pierce his foe's soft neck when his arm suddenly stopped. Metal snarled in frustration, "What's going on?!"

Eggman's voice came to him once again, "I said leave him, Metal Sonic! That's an order! We have more important things to concentrate on right now."

Knowing that it would be impossible to disobey his master's orders, the robot grudgingly obliged. "This is why all of Eggman's plans fall apart," he said to himself as he flew off. He was stronger now, though, and Metal Sonic swore that someday soon he would get out from under his creator's thumb and show that idiot how it was done!

* * *

_Author's Note: I'm back! This is a sequal to 'New Growth', so if you haven't read that story yet, you might get a little lost later on. You have been warned. My last story was mostly Tails' POV, but this story is going to have a little bit of everyone, including a few OCs (Normally I hate creating OCs, but for this story I'll need a few for some small parts). If anyone's curious as to what the new Metal Sonic looks like, just Google Neo Metal Sonic from Sonic Heroes (Look for Dark Makora's pic. I did not make this, its just the best pic I could find). Since I really should say it: Sonic and the rest all belong to SEGA, any OCs belong to me (though I don't care if anyone uses them). _


	2. A Tale of Twos

**A Tale of Twos**

Deep in space, a beautiful tree had taken root on the horrible anomaly that threatened to destroy the entire galaxy if it wasn't stopped. The only way to do that was to fire the Sonic Driver, the main cannon of the Blue Typhoon, while that tree still had the power to suppress the anomaly. That was no ordinary tree, however. A moment ago, that had been a girl named Cosmo, who just happened to be the love of Miles "Tails" Prower's life. And he just happened to have his thumb on the trigger of the main cannon. He didn't want to do it; to fire the cannon, to end her life. There had to be another way! He couldn't help it, though. He watched in horror as his thumb moved unbidden, as a great light flared from the cannon, and as the power of two super hedgehogs vaporized both the dark entity and the tree. He screamed…

Tails woke with a start and sat straight up in his bed. He looked around his room, disoriented and breathing heavily. After a few moments he realized where he was and came back to reality. The fox growled in annoyance and slammed his fist into his pillow. Why was he still having these dreams? Cosmo was alive and well. He knew that for a fact. She was in the room across the hall, for crying out loud, probably sleeping like a baby. She was fine. She was…

Tails sighed as he got up out of his bed and put on his shoes and gloves. In his mind, he knew that she was fine, but he knew that his heart would be nagging at him until he saw her for himself. Tails would have to go check on her, as he did whenever he had one of those dreams. It was about time for him to get up anyways.

It had been six months since Cosmo had miraculously returned to life, blooming from the seed that Sonic had given him after the fight with Dark Oak. Since then, she had stayed with Tails in the spare room across from his. Their friends had all helped to modify the room as well as the rest of Tails' home to try and make Cosmo feel more comfortable. They had added a garden and a small greenhouse for Cosmo to grow things in, and the once plain spare room was now very vibrant and lively. It was to that room that Tails headed now, still annoyed that he'd been robbed of a good night's sleep by an outdated nightmare. He supposed the trauma of what he'd done that day still affected him a little. Though the depression the fox felt in the days before Cosmo's return had completely disappeared, the memory still occasionally haunted his dreams, and likely would until the memory faded. Hopefully it would be replaced by the happy memories that he and Cosmo would make together.

Tails crept across the hall and reached for the door to her room, hoping to peek in just to see his love without waking her, but as he reached for the handle he noticed a quiet sound coming from inside the room. He stopped to listen for a moment, and realized that Cosmo was making that sound. She was awake, but it sounded as if she was… crying. Tails decided to change tactics and gently knocked on the door. "Cosmo," he called, "are you okay?"

At first he was met with silence. She had suddenly stopped crying, likely having been surprised to hear him knocking. For a while nothing happened, but after a moment the door opened and Cosmo allowed Tails to enter. She tried to hide the fact that she'd been crying, but it was no use. The two of them had grown extremely close since Cosmo had moved in, and even if she had been able to hide her puffy red eyes and rosy cheeks, Tails would have still known she was upset.

"I'm sorry," Cosmo said as they stood in the doorway, "I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's fine, I always get up this early," Tails replied, worriedly, "but what's wrong?"

"N-Nothing. It was just…" she trailed off and looked away from him, "You'll think it's silly…"

"Cosmo," Tails replied as they sat down on her bed, "I would never think that anything bothering you this much was silly! Please, just tell me what's wrong."

Cosmo looked down toward the floor and was silent for a moment before speaking. "I had a nightmare," she explained, "I was on the ship that was carrying my people when it was attacked by the Metarex. I saw my mother, and my sister, and everyone else dying and… and…" She couldn't hold her tears back any longer. Tails wrapped his arms and two tails around her as she cried on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Tails!" she sobbed, "I just miss them so much!"

"Ssshhhhh" Tails said as he stroked her leafy green hair, "It's alright. There's nothing wrong with crying for the people you miss." To his knowledge, this was the first time she had ever really stopped to openly grieve for her people. The most he had ever seen her do was shed a few tears when she thought of her family on the Blue Typhoon, but she had always quickly choked them back almost as soon as they started and forced herself to regain composure. Tails knew that she had likely mourned her people's death in private, not wanting to trouble the others with her sorrow. Even now, she had tried to hide her pain in to avoid being a burden to Tails, afraid that he would think less of her. He hated seeing her like this, though he was glad to know that he wasn't the only one who suffered from nightmares.

The young Seedrian cried in Tails' arms for a while longer before she spoke again, "I just wish I could be stronger, like you…"

Tails was shocked to hear those words. Like him? Was she _kidding_? "Okay, now _that_ is silly," he said, pulling her back so he could look her in the eye, "You're already one of the strongest people I know. Much stronger than me, I think."

Cosmo just shook her head and replied, "But you never cry for your parents, and I know you must miss them dearly!"

That stung a little. Tails didn't like to talk about his parents much, or anything from the days before he met Sonic, for that matter. He preferred just to ignore his old scars and forget his bad memories, shove them into the back of his mind. It was something he and Cosmo had in common, really, though their reasons were different. Cosmo didn't want burden others with her problems, Tails just didn't like being fussed over. The fox decided to keep his explanation short.

"Sure I miss them," he told her, "and I get really sad now and again thinking about them. But that was a long time ago, and I really don't remember them that well. I did loose someone that I loved very much a little while ago, though. She was the sweetest, most beautiful girl I ever met, and was so selfless that she sacrificed her own life to save an entire galaxy!"

"Tails…" Cosmo said as she realized he was talking about her. She was about to say more when he continued.

"When she died I was very sad, and I cried a lot. Probably more than I should have, but I couldn't help it. Fortunately, she was able to come back," Tails took Cosmo's hand in his as he finished, "So if you can forgive me for crying so much over just one person, I think you can be forgiven for crying about the loss of your entire race."

"Tails," Cosmo said again as she wiped away the last of her tears, "thank you."

The fox kissed his flower on her forehead and stood up. "How about I make you some breakfast? I bet some hot pancakes will get your day off to a better start. You remember what today is, right?"

"That's right!" She replied, her mood perking up a bit. After that nightmare, she'd almost forgotten what day it was. Today was the start of their trip around the world!

They went downstairs to the kitchen and got the day started. Cosmo was tired from getting up so early, but she didn't feel like going back to bed. Today was a day she wanted to enjoy, but her nightmares had already wrecked her morning and she didn't want to risk having any more. She figured helping Tails with breakfast would make her feel a bit better. Being around him always helped her mood.

Cosmo set the table and poured them some juice while Tails made the pancakes. When they were done, a huge stack of pancakes sat on the table waiting to be eaten. The two sat down and dug in. As Cosmo poured on the syrup, she was a bit confused by the amount of food that Tails had made. He was a big eater, but surely he wasn't going to eat that whole stack, and she certainly couldn't! Then she remembered that they had invited Sonic over for breakfast, which definitely warranted the large amount of food.

"When do you think Sonic will be over?" Cosmo asked.

"Probably not for a while," Tails replied, "I doubt he's even out of bed yet."

"Neither am I, normally," Cosmo grinned, "But as Amy would say, a girl needs her beauty sleep."

"_You_ don't need any beauty sleep!" Tails said, flashing her a grin of his own. She smiled and blushed at the complement.

They continued their meal, casually discussing the upcoming trip between bites. The phone rang just as they were finishing up. "I'll get it," Tails said as Cosmo picked up the dishes. He picked up the phone, and barely had time to say "hello" before Amy's frantic voice came through the receiver. She was wailing so loud that Cosmo could hear her over the running water. The poor girl was talking so fast that Tails seemed to have trouble keeping up with the conversation, "What!?... Okay... No problem. I'll be there in a few!"

He turned to Cosmo as he hung up the phone and said, "We've gotta go! Sonic's been hurt!"

* * *

Amy paced back and forth as she waited for Tails to arrive. Sonic had passed out on her doorstep only a few moments ago, and after making him as comfortable as possible she had called Tails and asked him to pick up Vanilla and Cream along the way, hoping that one of the group would be able to help him somehow. She had already doctored up the few wounds she could find on her blue boyfriend. Now all she could do was watch and wait. It was driving her nuts!

A minute passed, then five, then fifteen, then longer still. To Amy if felt like eternity. Suddenly she saw him twitch, and then the blue hedgehog groaned and slowly opened his eyes.

"A-Amy?" he said as he tried to sit up.

"Hey! Keep still!" She said, rushing over to lay Sonic's head back on the pillow, "I don't know what did this to you, but you're in no condition to be moving right now!"

"Metal Sonic," Sonic said as his head hit the pillow.

"What? You mean that creep that kidnapped me when we first met?" Amy was genuinely surprised to hear this, "I thought Eggman scrapped that rust bucket after you showed it who the real Sonic is."

"Same here, Ames," Sonic replied, "but it looks like we were wrong. Metal's back, and badder than ever."

This was bad. Sonic looked genuinely worried by what had happened today, and he never looked worried about anything. He simply didn't like to show that kind of weakness to anyone. Was this situation really that bad, or was it just that Sonic was finally starting to open up to her the way she'd been hoping he would.

Amy's thoughts were interrupted by her front door banging open. Normally such rude guests would be met with the business end of her Piko Piko Hammer, but this was not a normal situation. "We got here as fast as we could!" Tails said as he entered. He was followed by Vanilla and Cream, who immediately went to Sonic to check on his health. Cosmo entered last, and asked "How is he?"

"I'm okay, guys," Sonic yelled from the couch.

"Yes, Amy did a very good job of patching him up," Vanilla agreed, smiling at Amy.

"But Mother," Cream asked, "what's wrong with him? Sonic doesn't look too bad to me."

This was true. Though the Chaos Emeralds backfiring had been extremely painful, the only physical marks on him were the few he'd received during the initial fight with Metal Sonic, and those weren't near enough to make him pass out. Sonic decided that it would be best to tell them what had happened. He told them all about the battle with his robotic double, and how he had tried to transform into Super Sonic to combat the machine's new powers.

"Then he shoots out this weird energy and suddenly I went from feeling the power to feeling the hurt," Sonic continued, "It was as if the Emeralds' power had gone completely crazy. The pain was so bad that I guess I just passed out. When I woke up, Metal and the Emeralds were gone, and I was just barely able to drag myself here before I blacked out again."

"So Eggman has the Chaos Emeralds, then," Tails concluded.

"No," Sonic assured them, "They scattered themselves just as I was loosing consciousness. I think whatever was affecting me was hurting the Emeralds, too."

"So what should we do now?" Cosmo asked.

"Sonic should get some rest." Vanilla answered. She then turned to the others and continued, "I think we'll have to put off that vacation you were planning."

"No way!" Sonic shouted as he tried to sit up.

"Sonic, Vanilla's right," Amy scolded the blue hedgehog, "You're in no condition to travel, and I'm sure our trip can wait for another week."

Sonic shook his head, "Guys, the Emeralds were scattered all over, and Eggman is probably out looking for them right now! We can't just sit here on out butts and wait around! And since we were planning on going around the world anyway, why not look for the Emeralds while we're at it?"

"But what if we run into Metal Sonic again?" Cream asked.

"Then we'll fight together," Cosmo answered her, "Just as we did during the Metarex War."

"Yeah!" Amy shouted, putting her hand on Cream's shoulder to reassure her friend, "There's no way I'm gonna let that tin can hurt my Sonic again!"

"Then it's settled! Let's head for the docks and get this show on the road!" Sonic said as he tried to stand up. He was feeling a bit stronger now and wanted to get started.

"Oooohhh no you don't!" Amy said as she gently pushed Sonic back onto the couch. "You're going to stay here and rest while the rest of us pack up. Miss Vanilla, can you and Cream please stay and make sure he doesn't hurt himself?"

"Of course, dear." The elder rabbit responded. "I'll make sure he gets his rest. You just run along and get your boat ready."

"Hey, don't I get any say in this?" Sonic asked.

"NO!" the others shouted as they filed out the door. Sonic just sat back and sighed. He knew the two rabbits would not let him leave, and he didn't quite have the strength to speed away yet. So he sat down on the couch, and as he quickly grew bored his mind began to wander.

Something had been bothering him, lately. He and Amy had been growing closer and closer recently, and it was starting to scare him. It was that same trickle of fear that had made him run from Amy and any other girl who had tried to get involved with him romantically before. He though he'd gotten over that when he'd finally asked Amy out. Why was it back now?

Sonic pushed that question firmly into the back of his mind. Sonic hated to admit that he was afraid to anyone, even (and perhaps especially) himself. Even with Tails and Amy, Sonic could rarely bring himself to give even the slightest indication that he was worried about something. He was a hero, and heroes weren't supposed to be worried or afraid, right? Well, right now, Sonic was worried about a lot of things, most notably Metal Sonic's strange new powers. If Eggman had really figured out how to stop Sonic from using the Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic, it could spell big trouble for everyone. Sonic really wasn't accustomed to having to stop and think about all of this stuff. Normally he would just keep going forward and react to each situation as he came to it. Forethought was something better left to Tails or Chris or one of the other brains in the group. This time, though, Sonic wasn't sure he'd have a choice. If they couldn't figure out a way around this new device soon, it would spell the end of the world as they knew it, and the beginning of the Eggman Empire.

* * *

_Author's Notes: Hmmmm....normally I'd make some sort of comment here... nothing to say right now though... oh well. Happy reading, hope you all like it._


	3. Maiden Voyage

**Maiden Voyage**

Sitting the docks that Tails had built by his workshop was his latest creation: The Sea Storm. It was a large, beautiful cruise ship that the fox had designed specifically for this trip. Not nearly as big as a commercial cruise ship, and nowhere near as big as the Typhoon, it still was more than big enough to hold Sonic and the others comfortably. It had sixteen bedrooms, a spacious mess hall with a full service kitchen, and a game room filled with their favorite amusements. There was a lounge on the deck with a small pool and hot tub to relax in, and a hatch on the side of the boat opened to reveal a small hangar for the Mecha Tornado, just in case.

This vacation had been Cream's idea. The group had promised to show Cosmo around Mobius, and when she returned they had all done just that, to a point. But as Cream was showing Cosmo her favorite flower fields, she realized that she couldn't show her friend one of her most favorite places because it was far away across the sea. When the two told Tails this, he realized that he had never been to the place Cream was talking about either, and in fact he himself had not been able to take Cosmo to some of his favorite spots because of how far away they were. Cream figured that everyone probably had some place they would like to go back to some day, and that they'd love to share with their friends. Thus, the idea of the round-the-world trip was born, with each of their friends picking out a place in the world to visit. They would, of course, need a way to get to these places; the Green Typhoon wasn't really suited for planetary travel, and the amount of weaponry on that ship might be a little off-putting to the locals of the places they landed.

And so Tails had started designing his boat. He was actually glad to have something big to work on. Since finishing up the Green Typhoon and Mecha Tornado, Tails had just been tinkering with small projects. These were typically things that only took him an hour or so, and were not nearly as challenging or fulfilling as working on a vehicle or other complex machine. Even better was the fact that this ship was being designed entirely as a luxury boat, as opposed to the war machines that he normally made to fight off Eggman. It was actually a very nice change of pace, designing something beautiful and fun rather than fast and destructive, and the fact that the Storm had very limited weaponry left plenty of room for other features. Tails was quite proud of the end result, and couldn't wait to take it out on the trip. He was also happy that he was going to be a captain again, though he hoped he would be playing that role a bit less than he had during the Metarex War. It had been a great experience for him, but he wanted to do a little relaxing on this vacation, too.

Currently, Tails, Cosmo, Amy, and Knuckles were loading their supplies and belongings onto the Storm and preparing it for its maiden voyage. Amy and Cosmo were in charge of the luggage and lighter supplies (Cosmo was trying very hard not to drop anything this time), while Knuckles was handling the heavy lifting. He was currently loading the Master Emerald into the ship. Knuckles was a bit hesitant to use the large gem as a power source after it was shattered the last time, but in the end it was the only way he would be able to go with his friends, and the echidna figured he could use a vacation. He might have been okay with leaving the thing with Rouge to watch, but he hadn't seen her in a little while, and he still wasn't entirely sure he could trust her with that responsibility. Knuckles and Rouge had long ago stopped pretending not to like each other, but he knew old habits died hard, and the ship needed a stable power source anyways.

After setting the Emerald gently into its slot in the engine room, knuckles nodded to Tails, who flipped a few switches and started the Sea Storm's main systems. After checking the readings on a monitor in the room to make sure everything was functioning correctly, Tails ran up to the bridge to run his final tests.

About mid-way through, the fox heard Amy calling him from the shore, "How much longer, Tails?"

"Another ten minutes or so," Tails answered.

"Okay, good," Amy said, "We've finished packing, and I just sent Cosmo to get Sonic and the others. Everything should be ready by the time they get back."

Tails switched on his communicator and called to Knuckles in the engine room, "How's everything looking down there?"

"Everything seems fine on this end," Knuckles replied, "You sure you won't need me down here on the trip?"

"Not unless we end up needing a major power boost," Tails assured the Echidna. "This ship practically runs itself, so just relax."

Cosmo returned with the others shortly after that. Sonic looked much better than he had earlier. Walking beside him were Cream and her mother.

"We ready to go?" Sonic called to his friends.

"You bet!" The others yelled back.

Sonic wasn't quite so sure if _he_ was ready to go. He didn't much like boats; too much water around for his taste. Still, he had agreed, reluctantly, that a boat would be the best way to go for this trip. Tails could have designed a luxery plane, of course, but it just wouldn't quite have had the same effect.

"Think of it!" Amy had said, "A romantic cruise to far-off destinations on the beautiful ocean!" To Sonic it would have been much more beautiful without the horribly endless expanses of water! He swallowed his complaints, though. Sonic trusted this particular ship only because Tails had designed and built it. This, in his mind at least, made it less likely that he would somehow drown.

"Yay! This is so exciting!" Cream said as she turned to her mother.

"Choooooow!" Cheese agreed.

"Now, you remember the rule, dear?" Vanilla asked her daughter.

Cream gave her a big smile and said, "Don't push any buttons."

"That's right!" Vanilla said, smiling back at her little girl, "Have a good time, dear!" She gave Cream a goodbye kiss in her forehead before releasing the girl.

"We will, Mother! See you when we get back!" The younger bunny hugged her mother once more before heading off toward the Sea Storm with Sonic.

Vanilla watched as the ship sailed away from the dock. She was more than a little worried about her daughter, but past experience told her that Cream would be fine. She and her friends had been on some pretty harrowing adventures, but they always came back none the worse for wear. The elder rabbit decided not to worry about it too much. She could always send the Chaotix out to look for Cream if like she had last time.

On that note, she wondered how Vector and the others were doing. They had re-established their business since the trip into space, and things were looking up for the group. Vanilla decided to pay them a visit on her way home. She had been wanting to spend some time alone with Vector while Cream was gone anyhow. She just hoped her little girl had a good time.

* * *

"Alright everyone," Tails said as the others gathered around him, "I know we're on vacation, here, but after what happened with Sonic earlier, we'll have to be extra careful while we look for the Chaos Emeralds. Everyone ready to go?"

The other crew members each gave shouts of agreement, all except for Knuckles, who looked very confused. "What are you guys talkin' about? What happened to Sonic? What happened to the Emeralds?" The echidna asked, suddenly getting very agitated.

The others all looked at him, and then looked at each other. In all of the excitement, they had completely forgotten to tell Knuckles about the incident from earlier. Whoops.

* * *

"Why did you stop me?" Metal Sonic asked angrily, "I was just about to destroy him!"

"I have my reasons, Metal, and that's all you need to know." Dr. Eggman answered, "Now, your next mission is to find the seven Chaos Emeralds."

"That's just it!" Metal snapped ,"With Sonic out of the way, this mission would be simple! However, since you forced me to leave him, he'll certainly get in the way, and-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH, METAL!" Eggman raged, "You were created to follow MY orders! If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you! Now, your first target is in a coastal city at the coordinates I've programmed into you. Get the Emerald and bring it back here, on the double!"

"Yes, doctor," Metal replied irritably. He flew off toward his destination, now more determined than ever to find a way out from under the doctor's thumb.

* * *

_Author's Note: Yeah, I know. The whole 'Sonic goes on vacation' bit is a little cliche. I'll try to keep things fresh, though._


	4. City of the Sun

**City of the Sun**

"Have you found one of the Emeralds, Tails?" Cosmo asked as she and Cream entered the bridge.

"Yup, and we're in luck! The Chaos Emerald seems to be moving directly toward our first destination, so we can look for it while we're sightseeing."

"Hooray!" Cream yelled, "Soleanna, here we come!" Since the vacation was her idea to begin with, everyone agreed that she should pick the first destination. It was Soleanna, a city that Cream had visited with her mother and father a long time ago. While she remembered neither the city nor her father particularly well, she did remember that she had enjoyed it quite a bit, and that she had wanted to go back some day.

The City of Soleanna had several names, among them the City of Water and the City of the Sun. The first title was due to the fact that Soleanna had no streets, only canals and walkways, while the latter name came from the citizens' belief in a sun god, holding a grand festival in his honor each year. That festival was actually being held today, which was one of the main reasons that the group had decided to start the trip when they did. Hundreds of boats lined the docks along the shores of the city as traders came from all over the world to sell their wares to the crowds of festivalgoers who currently walked the city. Tails had already reserved a spot on the docks for the Sea Storm, and the ship had no trouble finding a spot to set down its anchor.

Before heading out into the city, the group met on the bridge to discuss their plans. Tails spoke first, "Okay, everyone, the Emerald is somewhere in the city. It moved here from somewhere to the north a little while ago, which means that one of the merchants probably found it and brought it here."

"You know what that means, girls?" Amy asked excitedly.

"We get to go shopping!" The three girls answered in unison.

An hour or so later, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails found themselves walking around carrying the numerous bags and boxes filled with souvenirs and clothing that the girls had purchased. They had bought a few things themselves, but the girls' things were what was really weighing them down. "Somehow I knew we'd end up doing this at some point," Sonic grumbled.

"Quit whinin', Sonic," Kuckles told him, "You're always exercisin' your legs, so a little arm workout'll be good for ya." Knuckles, of course, was having no problem lifting his share.

Tails just rolled his eyes at the two and went back to searching. He was lucky. Since he had to watch the emerald radar, he got the lightest load; just the few things Cosmo decided to buy. Sonic was stuck carrying most of the stuff Amy had bought, and Knuckles was handling cream's stuff and anything that Sonic couldn't carry. At least they were getting to walk around the city, which was quite beautiful, and the girls seemed to be having fun. Tails just hoped that they found the Emerald soon, before someone else bought it up. It seemed to be close, but it was very hard to pick out any one item in the myriad shops that surrounded them.

"Chow! Chowchowchowchow chow!" Cheese squealed as he flew down towards them.

"Did you find something, Cheese?" Cream asked her little pet. It nodded in response and flew off in the direction it had come. Everyone followed the little Chao to a small stand near a fountain. In that stand a gray, middle-aged squirrel stood holding a red gem, and was speaking to a large group. He appeared to be taking bids, and the last one was particularly high.

"He's auctioning the Chaos Emerald! What should we do guys?" Tails asked.

"There's no way we have enough money to outbid that last guy, even if we returned everything we bought today!" Knuckles growled. Unfortunately, the answer to their dilemma came in a rather violent package.

"Is this the final bid folks?" the squirrel asked the crowd, "Going once!... Going Twice!..."

"How about if I bid your miserable lives?" came a menacing voice from the crowd. With that, a mechanical figure burst through the throng of people, knocking several to the ground. It was Metal Sonic, looking just the way Sonic had described him earlier. Wasting no time, the robot flew toward the stand and ripped it to pieces. The onlookers turned and fled for their lives, and the small area was quickly emptied except for the robot, the squirrel, and Sonic's group. Metal Sonic walked toward the shaking squirrel with his hand outstretched and said, "If you value your pathetic existence, you will give me that Emerald."

Having not seen Sonic standing behind him, Metal was quite surprised when his flesh and blood counterpart rammed him with a spin dash attack. He snarled when he realized who his attacker was. He knew Sonic was going to be a problem. Why hadn't Eggman listened to him? The machine didn't have time to dwell on such matters. He dashed toward the blue hedgehog, intent on finishing the job he had started, but was again surprised when a hammer hit him square in the face, sending him flying. Metal had nearly stopped himself when an uppercut from behind sent him flying straight up into the air. It was all happening too quickly for the robot to deal with properly. Before he could even begin to stop his assent, a swift kick from above sent Metal Sonic crashing into the ground. When his optical sensors finally came back online, the machine was able to see what had attacked him. Amy and Knuckles stood on either side of him, while Tails hovered just above.

"Nobody hurts my Sonic you rusted bag of bolts!" Amy snarled viciously.

Metal Sonic wasn't quite sure what was happening. Sonic was a problem on his own, but nothing his new form couldn't handle. The combined force of Sonic and his friends, however, was a bit more than he had bargained for. He had collected data on all of them before from his predecessors, Mecha Sonic ad Silver Sonic. Knuckles' strength had been expected, but the last time Metal Sonic had seen Amy she was just a helpless little girl, and when had that blasted freak Tails developed a backbone? This group was very different from what the robot had been expecting. If he was going to finish them off, he'd need more power. The machine quickly looked around and saw the squirrel being helped up by a rabbit and a strange-looking plant girl. Acting quickly, Metal sped away from the surprised trio that surrounded him and made his way directly toward Sonic. The hedgehog got into a fighting stance and waited to meet his foe. At the last possible moment though, Metal Sonic dodged to the right and rammed into the squirrel, sending him and the other two to the ground. He snatched up the red Emerald and laughed. Metal turned to his enemies and shouted, "Now I'll show you my power!" He opened up the compartment that held his energy processors, and was just about to place the gem inside its designated slot when a strange thought occurred to him. It was risky, but if he did this juuuuust right...Metal moved the Emerald down a bit and jammed it directly into his power core. He screamed horribly as a surge of uncontrollable energy flowed through every chip and wire in his body. Quickly, before the jolt could do too much damage, he routed all of the excess energy to the control circuits that Eggman had installed. The huge influx of energy fried the chips, and when Metal was sure that they were damaged beyond any hope of repair, he pulled out the Emerald and flung it to the ground.

Sonic and his friends had no idea what had just happened. They stood staring at the machine with varying mixtures of horror and confusion painted on their faces. Sonic's metallic double now just stood there twitching and smoking. Finally, he looked up at them, looked at each of them in turn, and said "I'm free…"  
If Metal Sonic could have smiled, he would have. He wanted to fight with Sonic and his friends again, but he knew that his damaged body wouldn't stand a chance against them now. It didn't matter. His auto repair systems would fix the damage in time. What they would not be able to fix were Eggman's control circuits. Those would have to be replaced, and Metal Sonic was going to make sure that didn't happen. So let them have this stupid Emerald, he thought to himself. He would take it back soon enough, and right now he had bigger fish to fry. Metal cackled maniacally as he sped away from the fountain, heading out of the city and toward Eggman's base.

For a moment Sonic and the others simply stared after the mechanical maniac. It was finally Sonic who broke the silence when he said, "Well, he really showed us!"

The others laughed, partially from the joke and partially from relief that this event was all over. Cream picked up the red Emerald and took it to the Squirrel. "Here, sir," she said, "I think this belongs to you."

"Take it!" he practically screamed, "If this is what happens to people who own that thing, you can have it!"

Cream gave the man a big smile and said, "Thank you, Mr. Merchant!"

"Good job everyone!" Sonic said, giving his friends his trademark thumbs up, "That's one down, six to go!" He was relieved that the fight had gone so well this time. With his friends around, maybe this wouldn't be as big of a problem as he had thought it would be.

"Now we can get back to our shopping!" Amy said cheerfully. The boys sighed heavily, especially Tails, who knew that, now that the emerald had been found, he would be expected to carry his fair share of the bags, too.

* * *

Night had fallen in Soleanna, and crowds of people gathered around the altar floating on the water in the middle of the Old City to watch the festival's grand finale, including Sonic and his friends. After walking all over the city, taking in the sights and buying loads of souvenirs, they had loaded their stuff onto the Sea Storm and taken gondolas back into the city center to watch the spectacle. A boat carrying dancers and the royal guard came into view as it emerged from beneath a bridge. Sitting in the center of that boat was the kingdom's current ruler, Princess Elise III. She was a pretty young collie with reddish fur wearing a short white dress. Elise was well liked by her people, and thus they jumped and cheered loudly when she made her appearance.

"She's pretty cute, eh Sonic?" Knuckles asked the blue hedgehog.

In what was probably one of the smartest moves of his life, Sonic chose to keep his mouth shut and simply pretended not to hear the question. Instead, he wrapped his arm around Amy's waist and pulled her a little closer to him. She giggled and blushed a little as he held her by his side. Amy had been a little curious to hear how Sonic answered Knuckles' question, but she didn't dare ruin one of the few tender moments that he actively chose to share with her. So they watched as the boat made its way to the altar that sat in the middle of the canal. When it got there, Elise walked off of the boat, followed by her attendants. She took a few steps toward the altar with a decorated torch in her hands. The princess bowed to the priest who stood at the altar and said, "We give thanks to the blessed flames. May we always continue to have peace." She lifted the torch and continued the prayer, "Sun of Soleanna, guide and watch over us with your eternal light!" With those final words, she lowered the flaming torch onto the oily pool in the center of the altar. The flame ran along the oil, spreading and climbing up the curving alter until it reached a larger central torch, which exploded with light. Fireworks boomed in the background as the crowd cheered. The sight was incredibly beautiful, inspiring awe even in those who had seen this ritual many times before.

When the ceremony was over, the group went back to the Sea Storm to turn in for the night. Tails advised them to get plenty of rest, since they would be leaving the city the next morning. It was Tails' turn to pick a destination, and he wanted to set out as soon as possible.

* * *

Metal Sonic had no sooner entered Dr. Eggman's base than his creator's voice came over an intercom. "Metal, what happened?" he asked, "After you picked up the Chaos Emerald I lost all contact with you. Are you in need of repairs?"

"I'm fine, Doctor." Metal Sonic responded, "Things have... changed a bit, that's all." The blue robot shoved his clawed hand into the communicator and destroyed it. He then proceeded down one of the hallways of the base. If Metal was going to destroy Sonic and the others, he would need reinforcements, and he knew just where to get them.

It only took Eggman a moment to realize that he'd lost control of his robot. He could no longer communicate with Metal Sonic by any means, so he decided that the best way to deal with this mutiny was to put the robot out of commission. He could always use his secret weapon on another machine now that he knew it would work, so Metal Sonic had outlived his usefulness. He ordered several squads of his most powerful robots to intercept Sonic's mechanical double. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. Eggman had redesigned Metal Sonic a little too well, and his auto repair systems had already restored the robot to 80% of his normal functionality. He made short work of his robotic brethren before continuing towards his destination. Metal entered the lab where Eggman's experimental creations were kept and grabbed two pods similar to the one he had been stored in. Eggman, realizing what Metal was after, ordered every available robot to destroy him on sight. Metal Sonic didn't even bother to slow down for the lesser machines. He simply tore through those that got in his way and ignored the others. He made his way to the hangar, where one of Eggman's newest and largest ships, the Sky Egg (he was definately going to rename it after stealing it) was located. Eggman had fueled it and gotten it ready to go in preparation for Metal Sonic's inevitable victory, though he hadn't counted on Metal himself taking the ship. Metal quickly bypassed the security systems and made his way to the bridge. Eggman's guard robots started to surround the ship in an attempt to keep it from taking off, but the ship's weaponry dealt with them easily. The rebellious robot then proceeded to power up the ship's main cannons and blasted a hole in the hangar doors. The Metal Sky (Metal had just decided to rename the ship that) then flew away from the base with very little resistance, leaving a shocked and furious Eggman wondering how things could possibly have gone so wrong.

* * *

_Author's Note: Okay, for those who actually care about this sort of thing, I was_ **so** _not trying to say anything either for or against SonicxElise in this chapter. I wanted to use Soleanna as a destination (I really liked running around that place), and I thought that it would be fun to include her in an anthro form. I'm just sayin', since I know that some people get pretty rabid about this stuff._


	5. Two Tails

**Two Tails**

Rouge the Bat sat high in a tree watching the sun come up. Well, she wasn't actually watching the sun, but rather admiring how the early morning rays danced and played on the newest addition to her jewel collection. It was a fairly large ruby that she had retrieved from an old and decrepit temple a few miles to the south. Knuckie would a little sore that she'd gone treasure hunting without him, but she knew he couldn't stay mad at her for long. After all, what was she supposed to do while he was out traveling the world without her?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a childish, squeaky, and annoyingly familiar voice coming from behind her. "Boy, you sure are hard to find!" it whined.

Rouge sighed before answering the obnoxious robot, "Whadaya want, Bokkun?"

"I've got a message for you from Dr. Eggman!" he answered as he pulled a television out of his bag.

The Doctor's face appeared and the recording spoke to her. "Hello, Rouge, glad to see you're well," it said, "I'll get straight to the point. I know Shadow is alive and I know you know where to find him. Bring him to my lab ASAP. It is urgent that I speak with you both, for all our sakes. Time is of the essence, so don't keep me waiting." When the screen went black, Rouge kicked it out of Bokkun's hands and sent it flying. She was somewhat surprised when it landed harmlessly on the ground.

"What?" she asked the small messenger, "No boom?"

"No you idiot!" Bokkun yelled, "Dr. Eggman said that this was too important to put a bomb in it!"

Rouge considered this for a moment. If Eggman was too distracted for his usual little tricks, something must really be up. The bat flew off to where she knew Shadow would be, leaving an annoyed Bokkun to fume as she left him behind without a word.

* * *

A few days had passed, and Tails was excited to be nearing a place he had not seen in some time. It was a little place called Cocoa Island, though the fox had dubbed it Tails Island before learning that it already had a name. He had gone to this island for a vacation after he and Sonic had saved Angel Island from the Death Egg, but Tails' vacation was soon interrupted by the invasion of the Imperial Battle Kukku Army, who were searching for the Chaos Emeralds in hopes of taking over the world. Looking back, the ragtag army was somewhat lacking compaired to the armies that he and his freinds had fought more recently. Tails doubted they would have succeeded in taking over the world even if they had gotten the emeralds. Still, Tails had made it his duty to stop them, and with the help of his trusty bombs and machines the fox defeated the army's emperor and forced them to turn back, saving the day and completing the first adventure Tails had ever really had on his own.

Tails was snapped out of his thoughts by a loud beeping sound from the Emerald detector. Looking down at his panel, Tails pushed a few buttons and calculated the approximate location of the Emerald. The fox happily noted that it wasn't too far away from their current destination. He flipped a switch and spoke into a microphone over a communication channel that the whole ship would hear, "I've found another Chaos Emerald. Could everyone come to the bridge, please?"

It didn't take long for the others to assemble on the bridge, and they were currently all gathered around the map screen that Tails had just brought up. "Here's our current location," he informed them, indicating a small, boat-like shape on the map. He then pointed to an island to the south and said, "and here's our destination. The Chaos Emerald is on a little island to the west of that."

"So what's the plan, little bro?" Sonic asked.

"Well, I was thinking that we could drop the girls off on Cocoa Island and let them explore for a bit while you, me and Knuckles look for the Emerald."

"Don't you want our help?" Amy asked, seeming slightly annoyed by what she saw as a possible sleight.

"Well," Tails began, choosing his words to make sure she didn't take offense, "We're supposed to be on vacation, and since we haven't seen any sign of Metal Sonic around, I figured some of us may as well get a chance to relax. The island that the Chaos Emerald is on isn't very far away, and if we hurry it shouldn't take us more than an hour to get it and meet up with you."

"That sounds good, I guess," Amy relented, "And it'll give the three of us time for some girl-talk."

When they reached Cocoa Island, Amy, Cream and Cosmo exited the ship. Tails followed and told the three girls, "If you head off a bit to the north you'll find my old workshop. You can head there if you want. We'll call you up when we're done so we can all meet up."

"Sounds good, Tails," Cosmo said as she walked over to him. She wrapped her arms around the fox and gave him a kiss.

They held each other for another moment before Tails said, "I love you, Cosmo."

"I love you, too, Tails," she said. The two finished their goodbyes and Cosmo ran back over to where the other girls were waiting.

Amy felt a little depressed as she watched the couple's exchange. She and Sonic had parted in a similar manner before the girls had left the ship, except that their goodbyes had been missing those three little words: "I love you." She wanted very badly to hear those words from Sonic's mouth, but in all the time they'd been dating, he had yet to say it. The pink hedgehog was glad to see Tails and Cosmo were so happy together, but she wondered what they had in their relationship that she and Sonic were missing.

The three decided that Tail's old home was as good a place as any to start, so they started traveling in the direction Tails had pointed them. Cream and Cosmo both noticed that Amy seemed a little down. It was Cream who finally broke the silence. "Amy, are you okay?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm fine," Amy sighed, "Its just…" She turned to Cosmo before continuing, "How did you do it? You and Tails have only really known each other for just under a year and you've already got him professing his undying love to you! I've been chasing Sonic for years and he still won't say that to me. What am I missing?"

"Well," Cosmo began, "I think when Tails was forced to blast me in space he figured that if he didn't tell me how he felt then, he'd never get another chance. I wouldn't go that route though."

It always amazed Amy how easily Cosmo could talk about the events of that day. The entire group had spent so much time avoiding the subject that the Seedrian's casual way of talking, and even joking about it seemed odd, especially since she had been the one who almost died.

Seeing that her little joke had made her friends somewhat uncomfortable, Cosmo decided to move on, "Tails might not like it if I told you this, but he and I have talked about this before. Did you know that you're actually Sonic's first serious girlfriend?"

Amy shook her head, and was a little surprised to hear that this was the case. She figured that he'd had lots of girlfriends, being a famous hero and all.

Cosmo continued, "I guess Tails has seen lots of girls go after him, but Sonic always ran away from them, just like he did with you."

"You mean Sonic was afraid of girls?" Cream asked, trying to understand what the two older girls were getting at.

"He's afraid of getting really close to one, I think," Cosmo answered.

Amy took this information in slowly as the three girls walked toward their destination. Sonic was afraid to get close to a girl? But Sonic wasn't afraid of anything but deep water… Was he? What could he possibly be afraid of? That she'd tie him down? That she'd take away the freedom the blue hedgehog cherished so much? Deep down, she knew that whenever Dr. Eggman had tried to take over the world, Sonic had fought to maintain his own carefree lifestyle just as much as he had to maintain the planet's freedom. If he saw their relationship as another threat to that freedom…

"Well," Amy finally said, "If that's the way he feels, I'll just have to make sure he knows he doesn't have to be afraid of me! I'll get my sweety to admit that he loves me some day, I just know it!" The Pink hedgehog had that dreamy look in her eyes that made her two friends sigh and roll their eyes.

"You have to admire her persistence, at least," Cream said.

* * *

Tails' old workshop had been built on top of the ruins of the one the Battle Kukku Army had burnt down. It was in surprisingly good shape for a building that hadn't been used in years, and when the three girls opened the door they found all manner of strange things inside. What stuck out most for Cosmo, though, was a little robot that sat on a table. It was a miniature version of Tails, and sitting next to it was a remote control with the words 'Mecha Tails Remote Robot' written on the front. It was the cutest thing she'd ever seen (aside from the real thing, of course), and she just had to try it out. She put the little robot on the floor and switched the power on. She was only a little surprised that it still worked, having seen enough of her fox's machines to know that they lasted a looong time.

"Amy, Cream, come look at this!" Cosmo exclaimed. The others rushed over, and they all laughed as the little robot scuttled about when Cosmo pressed a button. "This is fun!" Cosmo giggled, "I wonder if Tails would let me take it home with us!"

"You ya think it can fly?" Amy asked.

"Hmmmm..." Cosmo replied as she looked at the buttons, "Maybe this one..." She pushed a button marked 'up' and the robot's twin tails began spinning. It lifted itself into the air, waiting for the remote's next command. She pushed the button to make the flying robot go forward, however the Seedrian got a bit carried away and sent the little guy crashing headlong into a lamp. Cosmo jumped in surprise as the lamp crashed to the ground, darkening the area near the front door. Cursing her clumsiness she ran over and picked up the Mecha Tails. Upon further inspection she discovered that it was still intact. She unfortunately couldn't say the same for the lamp.

"Uuuuuhhmmm... maybe we should let Tails show us how it works before we play with it any more," Amy suggested. Cosmo simply nodded in response, feeling a little stupid at the moment.

"This guy must have been an earlier version," Cream said, holding up a strange looking doll. It looked somewhat like Tails, but was poorly stitched, and had a red gem bobbing from an antenna on its forehead. It was, in all honesty, pretty ugly.

"I think Tails should stick to metalwork. His sewing is awful!" Amy laughed.

"Its not _that_ bad," Cosmo said defensively.

"I'll bet Mother could fix it up a bit, " Cream suggested.

As they continued to examine it, the gem on its head began to blink on and off, as if signaling something. The three girls were all trying to figure out what it was doing when someone walked in. Since Cosmo had knocked over the lamp, they couldn't quite see who it was, but it appeared to be a familiar looking two-tailed figure. Cosmo jumped up and said "Hello Tails! I didn't think you'd be back so soon." She was about to say more when the figure spun its tails wildly and leapt at her. She just barely had time to jump out of the way before "Tails" pounced on the spot where she'd just been.

Up close, the three could see that this was definitely not the Tails they knew. Instead, a mechanical version of the fox glared at them with cold red eyes. Its sharp claws and saw blade-like tails looked ready to tear them all to shreds. The girls were not about to see what else this Metal Tails had in store for them. They bolted for the door as quickly as they could. Amy was the first to reach the door, followed by Cosmo. Cream and Cheese were just about to hop outside when the bunny tripped over a fallen chair. In an instant, Metal Tails was on her. Cheese put himself defiantly between the robot and the girl, though the little Chao knew that he would be no match for the machine. Metal Tails spun around, and was just about to slice the girl in two when someone else jumped in the way. The newcomer curled up and put his arms around Cream defensively as the two blades attempted to saw through his back. Metal Tails almost seemed surprised when the blades were unable to cut through the stranger's tough red shell.

The girls all stared in awe as the newcomer rose and turned to face his opponent. Breathing a bit heavily, he said "Can we, like, talk about this?" Metal Tails seemed to regain his composure and answered by swinging his tail blades at the stranger's face. He quickly dodged the attack and scooped Cream and Cheese into his arms. "I think we should run now!" He said as he sped toward the girls. They wasted no time in following his lead.

"Who are you?" Cream asked the stranger, who was still carrying her in his arms.

"Mighty the Armadillo," he said loud enough for everyone to hear, "Pleased ta meet 'cha!" When they finally thought they had lost the metal menace, he set Cream down, and she and the others introduced themselves.

"Nice to meet you!" he said again, "Now do any of you know what that thing is? It's been trying to kill anything that moves ever since I set foot on this island and..." The armadillo stopped suddenly when he noticed the Tails doll that Cream still carried. He pointed to it and shouted, "Get rid of that thing! That's how it tracks you! It sees through the dolls!"

Suddenly terrified, Cream threw the freaky thing away. It stopped in mid-air and turned around to stare at the group, showing its master exactly where his prey was. Mighty curled into a ball and jumped on top of the creepy floating doll, crushing it. His efforts were in vain, though, as Metal Tails had already located them and was very quickly catching up.

"Here we go again!" Mighty said as they again ran from the metal fox.

* * *

_Author's Note: A new friend and a new enemy all in one chapter! Not to mention all those creepy little dolls wandering around..._


	6. Double Double

**Double Double**

Though the Sea Storm was designed to be a luxury vehicle, Tails had given it a bit more power than might have been expected from a craft of its size. At its full speed, and aided by Knuckles coaxing some power from the Master Emerald, it actually took very little time to get to the island where the Chaos Emerald had landed. The place was an island in only the loosest sense of the word. It was more like a large, jagged, mountainous outcropping of rock.

"Great" Knuckles grumbled, "So now we have to climb a mountain? I thought you said this would be easy!"

"Actually, according to my scanners, the Emerald is actually somewhere _inside_ the mountain," Tails replied sheepishly. He was feeling a little foolish for thinking this would be easy. Things had never been easy before, so why should now be any different?

"So how do we get inside that thing?" Sonic asked.

"I could always dig us a path!" Knuckles said as he slipped on his large digging claws.

"That won't be necessary," Tails said as he brought up a diagram of the mountain, "It looks like the inside is mostly hollow, with a large network of caverns and tunnels running through it. We just need to find a cave that will lead us in."

"Like that one over there?" Sonic asked, pointing to what appeared to be a small opening in the cliff face.

"That'll do!" Tails answered as he steered the Storm toward the entrance. He got the ship as close as he could and set the anchor down. The ship's ramp just barely touched the ground near the mouth of the cave, and Sonic, Tails and Knuckles quickly entered the opening. They had not walked very far when they noticed several clusters of glowing mushrooms lining the wall, providing light in what would normally have been a very dark environment. They followed Tails' Emerald tracker deep into the tunnel until they reached an enormous cavern. Various glowing fungi grew all over the walls and floor of the great cave, bathing it in a soft light. Many of the mushrooms here were so big that all three of them could easily stand on one.

"Whoa!" Sonic said as he took in the increadible scenery before him.

"I'll definately have to bring Cosmo in here before we leave!" Tails said excitedly.

"Look!" Knuckles shouted, "There it is!" He pointed to a light blue gem sitting on a high on a cliff at the edge of the cavern. It was barely visible, as its glow was nearly indistinguishable from the glow of the mushrooms around them. The only reason Knuckles could spot it so easily was his connection to the Master Emerald.

"That's pretty high up," Tails observed, "I'll have to fly up and get it. I just hope I can fly that far."

"Save your strength, little buddy. I've got a better idea!" Sonic said. He hopped on to one of the large mushrooms, and was surprised at how springy it was. He jumped on it again, and was easily able to gain the height he needed to land on the next springy shroom. "Follow me, guys!" Sonic shouted as he headed for the next mushroom he found. Knuckles and Tails both followed him, hopping from one mushroom to the next as they made their way toward the Chaos Emerald. They were about half way there when Tails heard a strange rushing sound.

"Hey guys, do you hear-" Was all the fox got out before he was cut of by a swift blow to the back of his head. Sonic and the others turned to see a red robot standing over an unconscious Tails. The machine bore a definite resemblance to Knuckles.

"Great!" Sonic growled, angered that the thing had hurt Tails, "As if one Knucklehead wasn't bad enough!"

Knuckles leapt at his metal counterpart and shouted, "There ain't room enough around here for the two of us!" He and Metal Knuckles traded furious blows, and seemed to be at a stalemate until Sonic jumped in with a flying spin dash to Metal Knuckles' head. The robot was thrown back several feet, and when he looked up he saw Sonic and Knuckles rushing at him to continue the fight. The machine leapt up and bounced from the current mushroom it was on to an adjacent shroom, and when his two attackers tried to follow he bounced back to meet them in the middle. Sonic and Knuckles, both surprised by the move, were unable to dodge as the each of the robot's fists connected with their faces in a devastating punch that sent them flying back to the first mushroom.

Sonic sat up and rubbed his aching head. The Blue Blur had just enough time to realize that Metal Knuckles was standing over him before the machine backhanded him hard on the side of the head, knocking the hedgehog out. This left only Knuckles, who was now back up and ready to fight. Once again the two traded blows, and once again the fight appeared to be a stalemate. Unfortunately, there was one big difference between the two: Knuckles would inevitably tire out, Metal Knuckles wouldn't. Knuckles' best hope to defeat his robotic double was to land a punch that would do some major damage. In a desperate attempt, Knuckles risked a punch that he knew would be devastating if it connected, but would leave him wide open. Metal Knuckles saw this opening and took his own chance. Both hits connected, sending the two opponents reeling back. Metal Knuckles had definitely taken some heavy internal damage, but the blow was too much for the real Knuckles to take, and he fell over, unable to force himself to move.

Metal Knuckles shook off the scrambled view his optical units were sending him and surveyed his handiwork. His enemies lay strewn about on top of the giant mushroom. He would easily be able to kill them before getting the Emerald and reporting his success to Metal Sonic. He figured he may as well destroy them in the order they had been defeated, and turned toward where the two tailed fox was lying. Except that he was no longer there. Metal Knuckles had only a moment to ponder where the smallest of his foes had gone before the answer came to him. From high above, Tails came down like a bolt of lightning, and Metal Knuckles looked up just in time for Tails' foot to connect with his face. The impact sent the robot straight through the soft surface of the mushroom to crash to the ground far below. Already damaged, Metal Knuckles was unable to move.

After watching for a bit to make sure the machine wasn't getting up, Tails turned to his friends. He happily noted that both of them were slowly getting up.

"Anybody get the license number of that truck?" Sonic asked, rubbing his face and making sure no teeth were missing.

"I think I might have an imprint of it on my forehead, if that helps," Knuckles replied.

Seeing that his friends were ok, Tails turned his attention to the Emerald. "You guys rest here. I think I can fly up and get the Emerald from here," he told the others, trying to sound more confident than he felt. Tails had gotten hit just as hard as the rest of them, and still didn't quite feel right. It was just lucky that he'd woken up and slipped away before Metal Knuckles had noticed, or he'd probably be feeling a lot worse right now. The fox spun his twin tails and flew up to grab the Chaos Emerald. When he returned his friends had gotten back on their feet and were ready to go, looking only slightly worse for wear.

"We'd better check on the others," Sonic said, "If Metal Knuckles is here, Metal Sonic probably isn't far behind!" The three made their way quickly back to the Sea Storm and pulled up anchor. It was only after they'd left that Metal Knuckles was able to reboot his systems and get up. He was about to chase after his foes when a voice came to him over the communicator in his head.

"That's enough, Metal Knuckles. You've done better than I expected for your test run. Return to the Metal Sky for repairs."

Though Metal Knuckles could not talk, he was able to send messages over the communicator in machine language. In reply to his orders, he sent a simple "Yes, Master," and began to head back to base.

* * *

Mighty knew that they couldn't keep running forever. He hated fighting, and would normally only do so if there was no other choice. Right now appeared to be one of those times. He had come to this island just to explore, but found the place to be infested with those creepy two-tailed dolls and their larger, nastier master. He'd tried to leave the island, but had found the boat he'd used to come here destroyed, leaving him stranded with that mechanical menace that his newfound companions were calling Metal Tails. The girls had told him that their friends would be back soon with a boat. He really wished they'd hurry up.

The group was currently running through a small canyon, hoping to loose their pursuer among the rocks. They stopped when they nearly ran into a sheer cliff face. It was a dead end, and there was nowhere left to run.

"Fine, then!" Amy said as she pulled out her hammer, "I was getting tired of running anyways."

"I guess there's no other way," Mighty sighed as he prepared for the fight.

Cosmo and Cream stood behind the two, willing to help out in any way they could. Amy turned to the two and said, "Cream, I need you to fly out of here with Cosmo and look for the others."

"But what about you?" Cream asked worriedly.

"Me 'n Mighty can hold this guy off for a little while," Amy told her, "but I'll feel better if I know Sonic's on his way! Now get going!"

They watched as Cream picked up Cosmo and flew up the cliff to the ground above. It took Metal Tails very little time to reach the remaining two. He flew over them and dove to the ground, attempting to slice his fleshy foes with his whirling tails. He flew back up and dove again, narrowly avoiding the pink hedgehog's hammer.

Mighty was getting a little tired of the machine's aerial antics. He jumped and kicked against the wall of the canyon to reach the other wall, which he kicked off of again. He continued this process until he was high enough to jump at the robot and knock him down. Metal Tails spun his tails again to right himself, and he hit the ground just before Mighty did. Deciding to take a more direct approach, the robot dashed toward Mighty just as he landed and kicked him face first into the wall. Amy came up behind Metal Tails and attempted to smash him with her hammer, only to have it caught by the machine's two tails. He wrenched the large mallet out of her hands and threw it to the ground. He ran toward her, intent on finishing her off, when Mighty jumped on his back. The robot thought he had taken care of the armadillo, but once again he seemed to have underestimated his enemy's resilience. Metal Tails rolled and threw Mighty off of him. He was just attempting to calculate which of his battered opponents would fall first when a hail of bullets assailed him. Metal Tails' armor was strong enough to be unscathed by the attack, but he knew that it would not be strong enough to deflect the missile that was now headed straight for him. He jumped out of the way just as the missile exploded on his previous location. Metal Tails looked up to see his attacker. It was a large craft that looked like a walking jet plane, and seated in the cockpit was his counterpart, the real Tails.

Tails was only slightly surprised to see his metal double. After all, if there was a Metal Sonic and Metal Knuckles, why shouldn't there be a Metal Tails? Cosmo was seated behind him in the cockpit of the Mecha Tornado while Sonic, Knuckles, Cream, and Cheese were all perched on top of the hulking walker. The latter group jumped down and surrounded Metal Tails. Mighty had gotten back up, and Amy had retrieved her hammer, and they closed the circle that had formed around the robot. Now outnumbered and outgunned, the robot calculated that his chances for success had fallen from 95% to only 10%. With odds that slim, the robot figured he might as well go out with a bang. He sent out a signal that would attract all of the Tails Dolls on the island to his location. Now he just had to stall until they got here. He flew up and started buzzing around his grounded foes, only just barely avoiding their counterattacks. He couldn't dodge them forever, though. After ducking under a stray missile, Metal Tails was pounded from both sides by Mighty on his left and Sonic on the right. He fell to the ground, as was about to get up for what he figured would be a final counter attack when he received a message from Metal Sonic similar to the one Metal Knuckles had received. After sending an acknowledgement to his master, he suddenly jumped up and flew away as fast as he could toward the Metal Sky, dodging the missiles that Tails fired from below.

"Rats!" Tails said as he opened the cockpit, "He got away!"

"I think we have other problems right now, guys!" Cream said, pointing toward the entrance to the canyon. The others looked to where she pointed and saw a large group of Tails Dolls floating up to them. The gems on the dolls' heads were flashing, and an ominous beeping emanated from them. Both the beeping and the flashing grew more rapid as the dolls drew near, and it was pretty clear what would happen next.

Wasting no time, Sonic sprinted at the dolls as fast as he could and grabbed them up one by one. When he had collected all of them, he ran in circles to create a blue tornado, which he threw the dolls into. They were carried up high into the sky where they self destructed harmlessly.

"That was close!" Sonic said when he finally slowed down. He was greeted with a death grip hug from Amy.

"Oh, Sonic, you saved us!" She gushed, hugging him tighter.

"You're welcome!" Sonic said as he gasped for air.

"Mighty!" Knuckles called as he waved to the armadillo.

"Knuckles! Come 'ere, ya big lug!" Mighty answered him, "How long has it been?"

"Too long, pal," Knuckles said as the two shook hands.

"You two know each other?" Amy asked when she finally let go of Sonic.

"You bet!" Knuckles replied, "Mighty here is a first class explorer and world traveler. He's been all over the place! He and I met when he came to Angel Island so see the Master Emerald."

Mighty continued the story, "Yeah, that was a crazy trip! I just came to get a glimpse of the thing, but Knuckles here thought I was out to steal it!"

"Yeah, he's kinda like that to strangers," Sonic chimed in. Knuckles glared at the blue hedgehog, but couldn't deny it was the truth.

"Well, it was no big deal." Mighty said, "I managed to knock some sense into him."

"Wait, are you saying that you beat Knuckles in a fight?" Tails asked, somewhat impressed.

"Well, sort of," Mighty confessed, "I actually just curled into a ball and let him beat on my shell until he got too tired to fight, and then I came out and explained things to him."

"Your shell's really strong, Mighty," Cream said admiringly. She hadn't forgotten how he'd saved her life earlier. It wasn't the first time someone had saved her life, but for some reason this time felt... different.

"You're not kiddin'!" Knuckles said "I had to get a new pair of spiked gloves that day because the old ones got all bent out of shape when I tried to crack through that armor of his!"

"Mighty was the one who saved us from Metal Tails when he attacked," Cosmo said.

Knuckles turned back to his friend and said, "Well, I guess that means you've been introduced to most of us, so I'll just introduce the ones you haven't met." He pointed to Sonic and Tails and continued, "This is Sonic the Hedgehog, and that little guy in the jet-thing is Miles Prower, but we all call him Tails."

"Whoa, you mean _the_ Sonic and Tails?" Mighty asked incredulously, "I never thought I'd get to meet you guys! This is awesome!"

"You were pretty good back there yourself!" Sonic told him, "And any friend of Knuckles is a friend of mine!"

"Well, now that _that's_ all settled, I should probably give you guys that tour I promised," Tails said grinning, "Though with all the running around you girls did, you've probably seen most of the island by now!"

Amy crossed her arms and replied, "Well, its not like we actually got to stop and enjoy ourselves!"

"Can we stop for lunch first?" Sonic asked, "I'm starvin'!"

"Yeah, after all that running, I think we could all use a bite," Mighty added.

"Sure! There's a great spot near here where we can have lunch," Tails said, "Follow me!"

Tails lead the group to the shore of Crystal Lake, where they quickly set up a picnic and ate. It was a good thing they'd packed lots of food, since they were all ravenous from the day's events.

"So, you guys mind if I travel with you for a while?" Mighty asked between bites, "That robot wrecked my boat, so I'm kinda stranded here"

"No problem, Mighty," Tails replied "Its the least we could do since you helped us out earlier, and the Sea Storm's got plenty of room".

"Oh! I almost forgot, Tails," Cosmo said as she dug through the travel bag she'd brought. She pulled out the small Tails robot they'd found earlier and handed it to him. "We found this in your old lab."

"Whoa!" Tails exclaimed as he examined the Mecha Tails, "I haven't seen this little guy in years! Does it still work?"

"You bet it does!" Amy answered him, "we were having lots of fun with it until that metal creep showed up."

"Why don't you hold onto it, Cosmo," Tails said as he handed the robot back to her, "We can mess around with it when we get back to the Storm tonight."

They spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the forests and caverns of Cocoa Island while Tails recounted his adventures in each of those areas and pointed out the sights of interest.

As the sun started to set, the group headed back to the Sea Storm and traveled to the caves where Sonic, Knuckles and Tails had found the Chaos Emerald.

"Wow!" Amy exclaimed as they entered the cavern with the giant glowing mushrooms.

Cream looked around in wide-eyed wonder and said, "They're so pretty!"

"This is why I keep traveling Knux," Mighty said to the echidna, "no matter how many times I circle the globe, I always manage to find something new!"

The group stayed in those caves late into the evening, talking and playing on the trampoline-like mushrooms. Their next destination was a couple of days away, so they'd have plenty of time to sleep in the next morning. When they finally all grew tired, they left the caves and boarded the Storm.

"So where do I sleep?" Mighty asked.

"I'll show you in just a sec," Tails answered. The fox walked with Cosmo to her door and gave her a kiss goodnight before returning to Mighty. The armadillo gave him a knowing grin.

"What's that look for?" Tails asked, crossing his arms.

"Nothing," Mighty said slyly. He was already beginning to get the hang of who was who on this ship.

* * *

Before she got into bed, Cosmo put the Mecha Tails on her night stand, and smiled at it as she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

_Author's Note: For anyone who was confused by my references to Cocoa/Tails Island, the Battle Kukku Army, and the Remote Robot in the last chapter, they're from a little Game Gear game called Tails Adventure, which was one of the few games Tails has had on his own. Look it up, its pretty cool._


	7. Stardust

**Stardust**

The Sea Storm set down its anchor at Port Oasis, the only port anywhere on the desert peninsula that was their next destination. The group would be exploring the stardust desert. While there was a particular spot that Knuckles wanted to show the group, the entire desert was said to be quite beautiful.

Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles had volunteered to head into town to resupply the Sea Storm. They conversed casually as they walked through the town's marketplace.

"Its a good thing Cosmo stayed on the ship where it's cool," Amy commented, "She'd probably wilt in all of this heat!"

"That's one of the reasons we're going at dusk," Knuckles told them, "And why we're using our Extreme Gear instead of trying to walk. Unless that girl's part cactus, I don't think she'd do very well on a long trek through the desert."

"That reminds me," Amy jumped in, "I know Tails made a board for Cosmo and was teaching her how to ride it, but what about Mighty? I'm sure he'll wanna come along with us."

"Don't sweat it, Ames," Sonic told her, "Tails is modifying a spare board for him as we speak, and Cream's showing him the basics. He might not be ready for a race yet, but he'll at least be good enough that he won't fall off."

"It's been a while since we used those things, Sonic. Sure you still know how?" Knuckles teased.

"How 'bout we find out by racing each other when we get back?" Sonic said, smiling.

"You're on!" Knuckles shouted.

Amy winked at Sonic and said, "I'll be there to wave the checkered flag when you win, sweety!"

"Whadaya mean 'when _he_ wins'," Knuckles yelled. They both laughed at the irate echidna as they continued their stroll through the town.

When they had finished running their errands, the three headed back to the ship to find everyone practicing with their Extreme Gear. The truth was that none of them had really touched their boards since they'd met Jet, Wave and Storm in the EX World Grand Prix that Eggman had held in yet another attempt to get all of the Chaos Emeralds. The Metarex War had broken out soon after, and thus the group had more important things to worry about, and in the aftermath of that war most of the group had not really felt the need to use the Extreme Gear. Tails had finally dug his Yellow Tail out when he taught Cosmo to ride, and eventually made her a board of her own, a well-rounded machine which she dubbed the Green Leaf.

Each of them had donned their typical boarding wear. Tails wore a pair of flight goggles and a red scarf around his neck. He was currently trying not to stare at Cosmo, who was wearing a fairly tight jumpsuit with a green skirt that she had bought while in Soleanna. Cream, who was currently racing around with Mighty, wore a pair of shorts under her dress and a visor to keep the sun off. Mighty simply wore a pair of sunglasses and some thicker gloves. In spite of having never ridden a hover board before, Mighty had quickly gotten the hang of his Extreme Gear, a strength-type board that he had named the Traveler.

"Looks like we'd better hurry up and get our boards, or we'll miss all the fun!" Sonic said.

Knuckles grumbled his reply, "Then we can have that race you promised me, Sonic."

"You bet, buddy!" Sonic said with a thumbs-up as he rushed off to find his board.

* * *

The desert cooled a bit as the sun began to set. Knuckles led the way as he and his friends sped off toward their destination. At first, there was nothing but rocky earth under them for miles, but eventually the group came to a place that was covered in fine, crystalline sand. This was why they called this place the stardust desert. The sand sparkled and shimmered in the setting sun, and when night fell they almost couldn't tell where the starry sky ended and the ground began. In most deserts, when night came the air turned bitter cold, but here the Stardust Desert the sun warmed the crystal sands to a point where they were too hot to walk on during the day, and the heat radiating from those crystals made the air an ideal temperature by night. The crystals also made it very easy to see at night, due to the light being reflected off the stars and the moon.

"It almost looks like snow!" Cream commented as she flew up next to Knuckles.

"Yeah," he replied, "This desert is considered one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and I'm gonna show you guys one of the most beautiful places in the desert."

They continued on until they reached the edge of a wide canyon. Knuckles hopped off of his board and walked to a path near the edge of the canyon that appeared to lead down into it.

"Watch your step, guys," Knuckles called behind him, "This path's a little tricky." The group picked their way down the path while Knuckles told them a little bit about the history of the place, "We're heading into Starlight Gorge, one of the widest Canyons on the planet, though not the deepest. You'll see why it's called Starlight Gorge shortly."

As Knuckles had said, the canyon wasn't very deep, and they reached the bottom fairly quickly. When they got there, the group saw that the canyon floor was bathed in many colors of light. This was caused by the hundreds of crystals that lined the walls of the canyon, reflecting the light that shone down from above. There were gems of all shapes, sizes and colors in that canyon, and the group couldn't help but stare in awe as they explored the place.

"These gems were formed over thousands of years from the fusing of the crystal sand above." Knuckles explained, "The different colors are created when foreign materials were mixed with the newly formed crystals. The crystals themselves aren't all that valuable, since they're just larger versions of the sand above. The sand itself is made of a crystal that is completely unique to this area, so they call it stardust crystals."

"Whoa!" Sonic exclaimed, "When did you get so smart, Knucklehead?"

"Rouge was the one who explained all this stuff to me," the echidna answered, "Jewels are kinda her thing, ya know."

They walked through the canyon a bit longer when a beeping noise startled them. Tails dug the emerald detector out of his bag and was surprised to get a reading, but noticed something was wrong. "Guys," he said, "I'm detecting a Chaos Emerald in the area, but it seems to be moving!"

"Where to, Tails?" Sonic asked.

"It's heading straight for us, and moving very fast!" Tails answered, "It'll be here any minute!"

They all ran for the path and climbed up. Sonic sped ahead of the others, moving as fast as he could without falling. He reached the top just as Metal Sonic arrived, carrying a large, wicked looking blue scythe with a serrated edge. The fact that the robot was currently floating concerned Sonic a bit. In the distance, Sonic could see a large battleship that was slowly floating toward them. It looked very much like one of Eggman's creations.

"Looks like this time I've beaten you, Sonic," Metal gloated.

"I think you've blown a fuse, Metalhead," Sonic laughed, "We haven't even started yet!"

"No, Sonic," the machine said as he opened his chest compartment, "Now that I have this, the fight is definitely over." Situated in the compartment was the white Chaos Emerald.

Only slightly daunted by the sight before him, Sonic rushed his robotic replica and the battle began. Sonic's friends got to the top of the path just time to see the two enemies clash.

"Sonic!" Amy cried.

"We've gotta help him!" Mighty yelled. Before any of them could move, though, two new figures hit the ground directly in front of them. Metal Tails and Metal Knuckles had come down from the floating battle station to aid their master. They immediately set upon the rest of Sonic's group. Tails, Amy, and Cosmo battled with Metal Tails while Knuckles, Mighty, and Cream faced Metal Knuckles. With his friends preoccupied, Sonic was left to face Metal Sonic alone.

Sonic jumped up and curled into a ball for a homing attack. Metal blocked the attack easily with his dark shield and swung his scythe in retaliation. Sonic ducked just in time to dodge the blade.

"Some copy you are!" Sonic jeered, "I never use weapons when I fight!"

"That's because _you_ are a wimp." Metal coldly responded as he continued his assault, "You can't stand the thought of hurting anyone, can you? Not even your worst enemies!" Metal swung the blade again and again, putting Sonic on the defensive. The machine continued his tirade as he fought, "You're just as bad as that fool Eggman! You know, if you'd just killed that buffoon when you had the chance you wouldn't be in this situation," He swung the blade down hard, grazing a few of Sonic's quills. Sonic risked a few speedy punches and kicks, all of which Metal was able to block. Sonic redoubled his efforts, forcing Metal concentrate solely on blocking and defending as he spoke, "Your life on the line… your friends in constant peril… all because you can't bring yourself to do what needs to be done!" With those last words he swung the scythe again, knocking Sonic away with the flat of the blade.

"But I can."

Metal Sonic fired a ball of dark energy from his hands. Sonic, still stunned from the earlier blow, had no time to react to this, and the projectile hit its target. When the dust cleared, Sonic was attempting to stand as Metal walked calmly over to him. "That's the big difference between you and me Sonic." He said, just loud enough for Sonic to hear him, "That's what makes me superior."

"It doesn't make you superior, Metal." Sonic said, breathing heavily, "It makes you a cold-hearted jerk."

Metal had had just about enough of his loathsome counterpart's mouth. He raised his scythe to deliver a killing blow when a bolt of energy hit him from behind. He turned to face this new opponent, and saw a black hedgehog with red highlights staring coldly back at him. Shadow the Hedgehog. Metal's former master had many files on this one, and he had studied them extensively. He was extremely powerful, and almost mechanical in efficiency. This would complicate matters.

To make things worse, he was holding what appeared to be a Chaos Emerald. It was white, like the one Metal had, which confused the machine at first. Upon further scanning, however, he found that the one Shadow possessed was different. Could it be artificial? Metal wanted to study it further, but he knew there was no time. Looking back, he saw a white bat (Rouge, if his data files were correct) helping Sonic to his feet, and found that he was now surrounded. His best chance would be to deal with Shadow first, then take out the bat and the weakened Sonic. Metal flew toward Shadow with blinding speed, but Shadow leapt up and rained chaos spears down on the machine, throwing up a dust cloud around him. As Shadow watched the cloud for any sign of his foe, two dark energy orbs flew out toward him. Shadow jumped away from the globes just as Metal Sonic flew out of the cloud. As he landed, he attempted to slash at Shadow with his scythe, only to have the ebony hedgehog catch the blade between his hands to stop the attack. This was taking far too long. Even in a weakened state, Metal knew that Sonic wouldn't wait much longer before attacking himself, and the bat would likely help. He surveyed the battlefield and saw that his other robots were slowly being worn down by their opponents. Metal Tails was being attacked from above by Tails and below by Amy, with Cosmo keeping watch to make sure the sneaky robot didn't call any of his Tails Dolls. Meanwhile, the defensive and offensive combo of Mighty and Knuckles was slowly wearing Metal Knuckles down, and Cream threw her little pet Chao at the red robot whenever she saw an opening.

Metal Sonic decided that enough was enough. He had taken this little detour because he saw a chance to destroy Sonic and his friends early in the game, but Shadow's interference had thrown a wrench in that plan. This simply meant that he would need to return to 'plan A', and as a bonus, it would allow him to field test his soldiers. Metal sent a signal to the Metal Sky, and in moments a group of twenty robots descended from the base and joined the fray. These were modified versions of Eggman's typical soldier drones. Metal Sonic knew that they would be no match for Sonic and the others, but they would provide cover for he and the other two to escape, and when he was back aboard the Metal Sky he could study the data those soldiers sent back to see what further modifications would be needed for his army. He flew up toward the battleship and signaled his two underlings to do the same. Metal Tails flew away and grabbed Metal Knuckles, and the two followed after their leader. Shadow and Tails both tried to pursue them, but the ongoing battle on the ground required their attention, and they were forced to pull back.

Thanks to Metal Sonic's modifications, these robots took a bit more effort than normal to subdue. However, the group still managed to put the machines out of commission with some effort. Unfortunately the Metal Sky was long gone by the time they finished. Having just destroyed the last robot with a homing attack, Sonic was finally able to greet those who had saved him.

"Hey Shadow. Where've ya been?" Sonic asked casually.

Shadow considered a moment before cryptically answering, "Thinking..."

"Awwww, Knuckie! You brought them to our favorite spot!" Rouge cooed, "How sweet of you to share it with the other lovebirds."

"You never told me you had a girlfriend, _Knuckie,_" Mighty teased with a huge grin on his face.

"Durn bat woman!" Knuckles grumbled, blushing furiously.

"It looks like Metal Sonic got away with the Emerald," Cosmo observed.

"Don't worry. We'll get it back in no time!" Sonic assured her.

"Sonic's right. We've lost an emerald before and always managed to get it back. In the meantime, why don't we all head back to the Sea Storm and get some rest," Tails said. He turned to Shadow and Rouge before he continued, "You guys can come, too, if you want. There's room enough on the ship, and I think we've all had a pretty long day."

"You can say that again!" Came a squeaky voice from above.

"Rats, I thought we'd lost that little pest," Rouge grumbled as Bokkun landed on the ground next to her.

"Lemme guess," Sonic began, "You've got a message from Dr. Egghead?"

"You got it!" Bokkun exclaimed.

"But if Bokkun followed you guys here, does that mean you're working for Eggman again?" Cream asked. She could be surprisingly observant at times.

"Sort of, but not in the way you might think," Shadow said.

"What's that supposed ta mean?" Knuckles growled.

"You'll understand when you hear the message, guys," Rouge assured them.

"We can listen to it in the morning," Sonic said, grabbing his board, "Right now, lets just head back and get some shut-eye!"

* * *

_Author's Note: Hopefully I'm not trying to cram too many different things into this story at once. I tried to make each location they visit feel like a different experiance while still trying to advance the plot. Anyhow, see ya next chapter._


	8. Dark Message

**Dark Message**

The crew had all gathered with Shadow, Rouge, and Bokkun on the deck of the Sea Storm to see what message the 'good doctor' had for them. Bokkun had just pulled a monitor out of his bag and was about to turn it on when Tails stopped him, "Bokkun, keep in mind that we're in the middle of the ocean, so if that thing explodes and blows a hole in my ship..."

"It won't, I promise!" Bokkun exclaimed.

"Well, the one he gave me didn't blow up," Rouge told them, "So this one's probably safe, too."

"Alright, lets hear it," Sonic said.

Bokkun turned on the monitor and Eggman's face came into view. "Greetings! I trust you're all doing well," Eggman said. Since it was only a recording, Eggman went on without waiting for an answer, "I'm sure that by now you've run into Metal Sonic and his cohorts. What you have probably failed to realize is that they are no longer working for me."

"What!?" the group cried in unison.

The message continued, "Metal Sonic has gone AWOL and taken a one of my largest battleships with him. The Sky Egg, or Metal Sky as he's now calling it, is a floating fortress that I designed specifically to combat fox-boy's Typhoon. I've sent Shadow and Rouge to help you combat this threat. I'm not sure what he's got in mind, but Metal Sonic seems to be bent on collecting the Choas Emeralds for himself."

"How do we know he's telling the truth? There's no way we can trust him!" Knuckles growled.

"That's something, comming from you, Knuckie," Rouge told him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Knuckles yelled. Rouge just laughed at him.

"I understand that you probably don't trust me, so as a token of my goodwill, I'm going to tell you how to bypass the weapon that stops Sonic from using the Chaos Emeralds." Eggman sighed before continuing, "I hate to waste a perfectly good invention like this, but I think the situation warrants it. I doubt you'll be able to defeat my advanced Metal Sonic without transforming."

"Ok, now I _know_ something's up," Sonic said, "There's no way Egghead would give up his secrets so easily."

The recording seemed to anticipate Sonic's reaction. "Don't assume I'm doing this entirely out of the goodness of my heart, Sonic," Eggman said darkly, "You might not like what I'm about to say. You see my weapon is designed to disrupt the positive energies flowing from the Emeralds, thus causing them to go wild whenever Sonic tries to use those energies to transform into Super Sonic. The weapon does not, however, effect the negative energies of the Emeralds, and thus Sonic's _other_ Super form should still be usable."

"His other form?" Amy asked? "What's that maniac talking about?"

Sonic just stared in wide-eyed disbelief at the monitor. Was he really hearing this? Eggman was the only one who knew about Sonic's dark form, and he had explicitly told the hedgehog that he shouldn't use it, lest he end up like a certain red and black hedgehog. Was he really suggesting that Sonic use that power now?

"I've given you all the tools you should need to succeed, Sonic. We'll see how you use them," Eggman finished. The message ended with the doctor laughing maniacally before the screen went black.

"Well, that's all for me!" Bokkun said as he shoved the monitor back in his bag, "Bye everybody!... Bye Cream!" he said as he flew off. The rabbit was a little curious as to why Bokkun had given her special attention, but there were bigger mysteries to solve now.

"Do you know what he was talking about, Sonic?" Shadow asked the stunned hedgehog.

"The theory is sound, I guess," Tails told them, "If a super form can be achieved using positive energy, it should be able to work with negative energy as well. I'm not sure if that's such a good idea, though..."

"ITS NOT!" Sonic shouted, "There's gotta be another way!"

Amy looked worriedly at her boyfriend, and said "Sonic?" The blue hedgehog looked like Eggman had just told him to jump into the ocean.

Sonic was saved from having to explain his apprehension by a beeping sound that was comming from Tails' wrist. The fox looked at the device and saw what was causing the alarm to go off. "Its another Chaos Emerald!" he shouted as he ran to the bridge. The others followed after him, and soon they were all staring at a map with a glowing red dot on it. There was just one little problem, though.

"This can't be right..." Tails said to himself as he checked his instruments, "There's nothing there! Just open sea for miles."

"So who said the Emerald had to be on land?" Shadow asked.

"You mean you think the Emerald is at the bottom of the Sea?" Mighty responded.

"Well, I doubt Tails' radar is wrong, so it must be there," said Shadow, getting a little annoyed at having to explain himself.

This just wasn't Sonic's day. First he was told that his best chance of beating Metal was to become Dark Super Sonic, and now it looked like they'd have to go to the bottom of the ocean to get the next Emerald! He wasn't sure which idea he hated more!

Tails noticed his best friend's discomfort. Sonic looked like he was going to be sick. The fox knew that the idea of going under water made Sonic jumpy, but why had he freaked out about using the Emeralds' negative energy? Had Sonic done it before? What happened? Short of outright asking, Tails knew he wasn't going to figure it out any time soon, so he decided to do what he could about Sonic's other problem.

"Well, we only have one ship capable of going under water, and that will only fit two people," Tails explained, "I'll be one of them; who wants to go with me?"

"I'll go," Cosmo said. It would be the first time they'd really been alone together since they started the trip, and Cosmo wasn't about to stay on the ship while Tails risked his neck on the ocean floor.

Rouge wasn't so sure about this plan, "Are you sure its such a good idea for you two to go down there alone? I mean-"

"Let 'em go, Rouge," Shadow interrupted her, "Those kids can take care of themselves."

Rouge wasn't so surprised by Shadow's words as she was by his tone of voice. "Is that… respect I hear in your voice, Shadow?"

"Hmph," was all the response he'd give her.

Things were looking up for Sonic, who sighed with relief when he heard that he wouldn't have to go down there. He was a little worried about Tails and Cosmo going all alone, but there was no other choice, really. Only two people could fit in the Mecha Tornado, and Sonic knew that he wouldn't be much help while they were under water. He needed some time to think, anyways.

"Ok, that settles it," said Tails, "Cosmo and I will search for the Emerald in the Mecha Tornado while the rest of you watch for any sign of Metal Sonic."

They all agreed and left the bridge, except for Tails, who still had a few questions. "Hang on a minute, Sonic," he said after the others left. Sonic turned and asked, "What's up, little bro?"

Tails chose his words carefully, "You got pretty freaked out back there when Eggman said we should use the Chaos Emeralds' negative energy. What was that all about?"

Sonic lowered his head and thought for a moment. He knew he could trust Tails with his secret, but frankly he didn't want to talk about it. When Sonic faced his adopted brother again he said, "If it comes to the point where we need to use that power, I'll tell you all about it. It won't work until we get the Emeralds back anyway, so lets just focus on that, first."

Tails nodded. He knew Sonic well enough to know when his brother didn't want to talk about something, and he also knew that no amount of prying would get it out of him. At any rate, Sonic was right, the whole idea was meaningless until they got the Chaos Emeralds back.

"See ya when you get back, buddy!" Sonic said as he sped out of the room. He immediately started running around the boat to get his mind off the day's events, and hoped fervorantly that he would not have to use the information Eggman had given them.

* * *

_Author's Note: Sorry for the irregular updates. Been reeeeaaally busy lately._


	9. Above and Below

Above and Below

After checking to make sure the Mecha Tornado's submersible mode was functioning properly, Tails and Cosmo sank below the waves in search of the next Chaos Emerald. The light began to fade as they followed the signal deeper and deeper into the ocean. Cosmo watched the radar while Tails kept his eye out for anything that might see them as a potential snack.

Suddenly Tails noticed the surrounding area was getting brighter, and he could see a light coming from a little ways off. It was just beyond the edge of a steep cliff. Tails figured that must be where the Emerald was.

"Tails, there's something in front of us." Cosmo informed him, "Actually, a lot of somethings…"

"Hang on, Cosmo, I'm gonna check it out", Tails said. He moved the Tornado forward slowly, unsure of what they would find. They both gasped as they reached the edge of the cliff. Below them was a vast underwater valley, and in the center of that valley was the source of the light they'd seen. A great city sat on the ocean floor, and luminous spheres surrounded it, providing light to the city's inhabitants. More importantly, however, was the battle that was raging below. Several small ships were fighting with a much larger ship that resembled a stingray, and had a very familiar insignia on it.

"Is that one of Dr. Eggman's ships?" Cosmo asked.

"Lets go find out!" Tails shouted as he pushed the Mecha Tornado forward. Upon closer inspection, they could see that the ship was definitely Eggman's design, and Tails decided to make his presence known by firing on said ship. Two torpedoes shot toward the wing of the sub, doing little damage but surprising the enemy vessel's occupants.

"What hit us?" Eggman yelled.

"There appears to be a vessel approaching from behind, sir!" Decoe informed his master.

Just then, Tails' voice came over the ship's radio, "Eggman! Is that you? What do you think you're doing?"

Eggmn opened the channel to communicate with the fox, "What does it look like I'm doing, you pest? I'm taking the Chaos Emerald! You didn't think I'd just sit on the sidelines and watch did you? Metal Sonic's already got his hands on one Emerald, and if you guys fail I want to have a little insurance for myself! Now take a hike, fox-boy, before my Egg Manta blows you to bits! Eggman out!"

"First he helps us, and now he's fighting us," Cosmo sighed, "I don't think I'll ever understand that man."

Tails just shook his head as he flipped off the communicator. He had stopped trying to figure out Eggman long ago. The man was just too contradictory!

A new voice came over the Tornado's communicator and said "unknown vessel, identify yourself immediately or you will be destroyed."

"This is Miles Prower aboard the Mecha Tornado," Tails answered, "We don't mean any harm, we just want to help."

The voice spoke again, "We can use all the help we can get, but if you turn on us you will be fired upon."

"Understood," Tails said.

Cosmo leaned forward and said, "I don't think they trust us, Tails."

"Can't say I blame them, Cosmo," Tails replied, "After all, we probably look a little funny coming here right in the middle of a fight."

The Mecha Tornado joined up with the other small fighters and went on the attack. Cosmo handled the weapons systems while Tails steered.

If Tails could have used the Mecha Tornado's main cannon, this would have been over with a few shots. Unfortunately, Tails had not outfitted the cannon for use underwater, and the consequenses of attempting to use it now could be catastrophic, especially with so many other ships around. He really should work on that when he got back home. It would only take a few adjustments...

"Tails, watch out!" Cosmo screamed, jolting the fox back to the present. He swerved just in time to avoid an incoming torpedo. "Sorry, Tails," Cosmo said, "I tried to get it before it got close, but I just couldn't hit it."

Tails sighed with relief before replying, "It's alright, Cosmo. I should have been paying more attention."

The battle raged for a few moments more. Each side was pounding on the other, but neither side seemed to be making much headway. Suddenly, an explosion rocked the Egg Manta near its left wing, and a black, inky mist poured out into the water. The Manta, having apparently been heavily damaged, turned and fled into the darkness of the ocean, still fighting off the small ships that went in pursuit.

"Did you see what happened, Cosmo?" Tails asked.

"It looks like it just exploded. I didn't see anything hit it in that area though," Cosmo answered him, "Maybe something malfunctioned on his ship."

Tails wanted to believe that, but something just seemed wrong about this whole thing. His thoughts were interrupted when a voice came over the Tornado's radio, "All ships return to Atlantis. That includes you, Mr. Prower. I have some questions I'd like to ask you."

Tails followed the ships back to a large hangar. He was looking for a place to surface but was a bit confused when he couldn't find any. The entire room was filled with water, and when the other ships stopped the occupants simply opened them underwater and swam out.

"Tails, look!" Cosmo exclaimed as she pointed outside the cockpit. Tails was a bit surprised by what he saw. An armored figure that appeared to be an old seahorse was motioning to them. He had no legs, instead propelling through the water with his tail, and seemed to be able to breathe underwater without any assistance. The seahorse swam over to a panel and pushed a few buttons, which opened a large door in the wall. He motioned for them to follow, and Tails complied by moving his craft slowly through the door behind their guide. The next room was partially drained and had a dock on the surface where they could park. Tails opened the cockpit and he and Cosmo stepped out on the dock, unsure of what to do next. They waited only a few moments before the Seahorse surfaced. Behind him swam a dolphin with five white marks on his forehead, along with two guards. None of them had any sort of legs that Tails could distinguish, and he began to realize that this entire kingdom must be composed of water dwellers.

"Greetings, surface-dwellers," the dolphin said. Tails and Cosmo instantly recognized his voice from the radio earlier, "My name is Ecco the Dolphin. You are currently in the great city of Atlantis, of which I am proud to call myself king. You must be Miles Prower?"

"I prefer Tails, thanks, and this is my friend, Cosmo," Tails answered, gesturing toward the Seedrian.

"It's good to meet you, Tails and Cosmo." Ecco said. He looked the two over for a moment, and briefly wondered when surface-dwellers had started looking so odd. One of them had two tails, and the other appeared to be a plant of some kind! Not wanting to be rude he continued, "I apologize for my rough demeanor, earlier. As you may have noticed, we've had a bit of trouble with surface-dwellers, lately."

"Probably because the Chaos Emerald is here, am I right?" Tails asked.

Ecco frowned slightly, "So you're looking for it, too…"

"Yeah, but not for the same reasons as Eggman," Tails assured him.

"We are trying to find the Emeralds so that we can save the world from Metal Sonic, one of Dr. Eggman's most dangerous creations," Cosmo added.

"It seems you know quite a bit about this Eggman," Ecco said, "I've got a lot of questions about him, but first I wanted to thank you for your help out there. I don't know what you did, but it certainly drove him off in a hurry!"

Tails and Cosmo both looked at each other. "We didn't do anything to that ship," the fox told the king, "we thought you guys had done something."

Ecco just shook his head, suddenly confused.

"Tails, you don't think…" Cosmo began. She was about to say more when a hammerhead shark swam frantically into the room.

"My Lord!" he yelled, "It's gone! The Chaos Emerald is gone!"

"Eggman must have tricked us!" Tails growled, "We have to get that Emerald back!"

"I'll go with you," Ecco said, "No one makes a fool of Atlantis on my watch!"

* * *

After running several laps around the interior of the ship (and being very careful to stay away from the edge), Sonic had retired to his quarters. The trouble with being cooped up on a boat for so long was that there really wasn't any good room to run. He could only go so far before he'd have to turn back, and having done so countless times, he was growing bored. Of course, just because he had chosen to sit down didn't mean he was sitting still. He drummed his fingers against the bed, swished his feet a bit, and looked around his room trying to find something to catch his eye. Instead, something caught his ears. There was a knock on the door followed by Amy's very distinct voice calling, "Oh Sooonniiiiic! Can I come?"

The blue hedgehog had the door open before she'd even finished the question. "What's up, Ames?" He asked as she entered the room.

"Nothing much," she answered casually, "I just wanted to see how you were doing. You looked a little shook up this morning."

"Aww, it was nothing, really. I just got a little worked up, that's all," Sonic said, dismissively.

Amy was silent for a moment. She had known his answer would be something like that, and thus known how the rest of the conversation was going to go. It would be awkward, but they needed to talk, and this time she wasn't going to let him worm his way around the issue. If they were ever going to go anywhere together, she _had_ to get him to trust her with his problems. "Sonic," She began, "That's not true and you know it."

"Amy…" Sonic said, hesitantly. She looked at him, obviously expecting something. She was blocking the door, so running away was really not an option, and honestly that was the coward's way out. But he didn't want to tell her. How could he tell her that he was horrified by the idea of turning into that bitter, hateful, violent _thing_ again when she didn't even know it existed? Would she be afraid of him if she knew what he could become? Would she laugh at his cowardice? Would she be angry that he hadn't told her sooner?

It was pretty clear to the pink hedgehog that Sonic wasn't going to talk. With every second of silence that passed her frustration grew. Finally it just boiled over, and she screamed at him "Sonic, why won't you talk to me!?" Amy felt a tear on her cheek, and the realization that she was crying only made her angrier. "Why won't you open up? What are you afraid of? Is it me? I've spent years chasing you, Sonic, but even now that we're dating you're still running from me! Are you afraid that if you get too close to me I'll tie you down? Take away your freedom? What is it?"

The blue hedgehog was quite taken aback by this rant. Not so much by the ferocity in her voice, but by the fact that she'd realized he was actually afraid of getting close to her. Amy was a bit off the mark about his reasons though. It was something he'd been thinking about for a while, and his recent close calls had given him some clarity as to what his problem really was. Sonic was never one to leave a problem, and it looked like now was the time to confront this one.

"It's not that Amy," Sonic began, "I know that some day I'll have to settle down and be responsible, just like my dad did for me, but…"

"But what?" Amy asked as she wiped away her tears. This was what she had been wanting a long time for. Even if she didn't like what Sonic said next, at least he was finally opening up to her, sharing his worries and fears with her, something he rarely did with anyone.

"But I don't know when I'll be able to do that," Sonic continued, "You're always talkin' about us getting married and having kids, Ames, but who's gonna save the world when Eggman or some other weirdo attacks? Do you want your kids growing up with a father who's constantly risking his life? Who might go out one morning and never come back? Or worse, what if something happened to one of those kids and I couldn't save them? Eggman already uses you as bait to lure me into his traps, what's to stop him from doing the same to my entire family? If something were to happen to you or any of my kids I just… don't think I could forgive myself."

Sonic looked at Amy as she pondered his words. This was why he never voiced his fears and worries to the others, and more importantly why he'd never allowed himself to get romantically involved with a girl. Now that he'd dropped his too-cool façade, he knew what was coming. Sonic wasn't known for being the smartest hedgehog in the world, but he'd thought long and hard about this, and he knew once Amy thought about it, she would see his logic and it would be over between them. She would head for more stable shores, and he couldn't blame her. Any sane girl would do the same. Fortunately for him, love tends to make people a little crazy.

"Sonic, do you remember when we first met?" Amy asked as she sat down next to him.

"Sure," Sonic laughed nervously, "Back then, you were still a little girl calling yourself Rosy the Rascal. Things sure have changed since then."

"Yes they have," Amy said as she took his hand, "That was the first time you ran away from me, Sonic. I was a scared little girl who thought she was going to die. But then I felt a pair of arms around me, and then the ground beneath my feet. When I opened my eyes, my hero was gone, but I knew it was you who'd saved me! Right then and there I promised myself that I'd find you again some day and convince you to marry me! Since then we've been on all kinds of crazy adventures together," She looked him square in the eye as she said the next part, "I know exactly what I'm getting into, Sonic. We've been through some of the most hopeless situations I can think of together, and I'm still holding to my promise. In fact, I'm more I've gotten to know you, the more determined I've become." Amy got up, wanting to leave him for a bit to ponder her words. As she put her hand on the door, she said, "I love you, Sonic the Hedgehog, and one of these days, you'll admit that you love me too. Until then, I'll be waiting." That said, she quietly left the room, smiling to herself in secret satisfaction at how well things had gone.

Sonic simply stared after her, dumbfounded. She hadn't run away. In fact, she had calmly informed him that she would not leave him for anything. Now that he thought about it, he should have realized she felt that way from the beginning. They _had_ been through lots of crazy stuff together, and at this point it was just as normal to her as it was to him. Sonic smiled to himself. For the first time in a while, he was at ease. Even if he did have to become Dark Super Sonic to beat Metal Sonic, he knew that Amy would be there to help him face the challenge. And so, Sonic realized, would Tails and all of his other friends. He wondered for a moment if this was what his two-tailed brother felt like when he thought of Cosmo. For the first time in his life, Sonic the Hedgehog allowed himself to believe that he was in love.

* * *

It took very little time for Tails, Cosmo, and Ecco to catch up to the Egg Manta. The Mecha Tornado was capable of great speeds in just about any environment, and while Sonic might be the fastest thing on two feet, he wouldn't be able to hold a candle to Ecco underwater. The dolphin easily kept up with the Tornado, a fact that would have amazed Tails were it not for the fact that he'd seen Sonic do it fairly often. Being a mammal, Ecco still needed a breathing apparatus to breath underwater, and he had supplied his companions with a pair of them, just in case (though Tails had needed to fill one of them with carbon dioxide for Cosmo, since she was a plant).

Ecco had one other ability besides being an incredible swimmer. As they got close to Eggman's larger craft, a long, high-pitched musical tone escaped his lips. It was to high pitch for Tails and Cosmo to hear, but not Ecco. He could hear the Egg Manta's sonar up ahead, and had matched his song's pitch to that of the sonar. The result of this was that Eggman's instruments all went crazy, giving the trio plenty of cover to slip in undetected. Tails attached the Mecha Tornado to the underside of the larger craft using magnetic hooks, and when he and Cosmo got into the water they quickly followed Ecco to an opening that he'd found. The opening had been used to launch Eggman's aquatic robots, but it didn't take long for Tails to rig the thing open. Tails and Cosmo crawled up the tube and into the ship. Ecco would have followed, but having no actual feet would make him something of a hindrance in the dry ship, and he had other ideas, anyway. He had ordered the rest of his fleet to follow after them, and he was going to make sure that Eggman wouldn't know what hit him when the slower ships caught up.

Tails immediately pulled out his Emerald tracker. The Chaos Emerald's signal was coming from the front of the ship. Tails sighed, realizing that this meant Eggman himself probably had the Emerald. So much for sneaking in and out. Still, it would be better if they didn't make too much noise. They would probably have a hard time getting out as it was. The two crept up to the bridge of the ship, with Tails disarming and dismantling any security systems he found along the way. He also planted a few bombs in various places, just to ensure that the Egg Manta wouldn't get very far after Tails and Cosmo made their escape.

When they reached the front of the ship, they found Eggman and his robots still trying frantically to figure out what had happened to their sensors. They had stopped the Egg Manta for fear that they would run into something, and were currently checking and re-checking all of the equipment. Tails and Cosmo hid behind the doorway, looking for a chance to grab the Chaos Emerald that they knew was in that room.

"Everything seems normal hear, Doctor," Decoe informed his master as he closed one of the side panels.

"Well keep looking!" Eggman yelled.

To his dismay, Tails noticed that Eggman was currently holding the Blue Emerald, which would make it very hard to get without the Doctor noticing.

"Doctor, it appears that several of our security points have been compromised," Bocoe said from his terminal.

"Grrrr... it must be that fox-boy again! Somehow I knew he would be behind this!" Eggman fumed, "Is he on the ship, or is he somehow doing this remotely?"

"I believe he is somewhere on the ship, Doctor," Bocoe replied. Eggman was just about to order a full search of the ship when his sensors suddenly started working again. When they did, an emergency signal blared inside the room.

"NOW WHAT?" Eggman exclaimed.

"Several enemy vessels are approaching!" Decoe said worriedly, "They're almost right on top of us!" An explosion suddenly shook the Egg Manta, and everyone had to hold on to something. Tails decided that this would be the best time to act, and he flew up behind Dr. Eggman. He tapped the Doctor on his left shoulder, and when Eggman turned to see what had touched him, Tails snatched the Emerald out of his hand. It didn't take long for Eggman to figure out what had happened.

"Get back here with my Emerald!" The irate doctor cried.

"C'mon, Cosmo!" Tails said as another explosion rocked the ship. The two ran quickly back the way they'd come.

"What should we do, Doctor?" Bocoe asked.

Eggman was caught between a rock and a hard place, now. The Atlantians had gotten the drop on him, and their attacks were a bit more forceful now than they had been earlier. He couldn't afford to turn his back on them, but letting that two-tailed twerp give Sonic his Emerald was out of the question. He gave the order, "Send all available guard bots after those two pests. Don't let them off the ship! Decoe, restart the engines and get us out of here!"

Eggman's minion's complied, and Tails and Cosmo soon found themselves confronted by a squad of robots. Tails flew into the air and picked up Cosmo by her arms. This left her feet free to kick the machines over as Tails flew quickly above them. The robots started to get back up, and they were all now pointing their weapons. What they failed to realize is that they were standing by one of Tails' bombs. He pushed a button on his wrist computer and the bomb detonated. Not only did it take out most of the robots, it also blew a good sized hole in the Egg Manta's outer hull. Water rushed into the room, knocking the remaining robots off of their feet, and nearly doing the same to Tails and Cosmo.

"We'd better put these on," Cosmo said, holding up her breathing apparatus. Tails took her advice, and then activated the other bombs he'd planted. When the room had completely filled with water, they used the hole that the bomb had left to exit the now sinking Egg Manta. They had barely enough time to get to the Mecha Tornado before the larger ship collapsed.

A familiar voice came over the radio as the Tornado sped toward the Atlantian ships, "Tails, is that you? Are you two alright?"

"We're fine, Ecco," Tails answered him.

"Eggman got away," the dolphin informed them, "We saw a small craft jettison from the Egg Manta after you blew it up. That _was_ you, this time, right?"

"Yup, and don't worry about the Chaos Emerald. We got it back safe and sound!" Tails told him.

"That's good to hear," Ecco said, "I think you should hold on to that. You've earned it, after what you two did, and hopefully that'll keep Eggman away from my city! Now why don't you two come back to Atlantis with us? I'm throwing a feast to celebrate our victory!" Several shouts and whoops could be heard over the radio at that last statement. Apparently the Atlantians enjoyed their feasts.

"Thanks," Tails began, "but we really have to get back to our friends. They're probably getting worried by now, and we still need to find the Chaos Emeralds before Metal Sonic or Eggman does."

"Alright," Ecco responded, "but be sure to come back when you get the chance. I'd be happy to have you and your friends as my personal guests in Atlantis."

"Thank you, Ecco," Tails said, "and goodbye." He steered the ship back toward the Sea Storm as the Atlantians headed home.

* * *

_Author's Note: Okay, so not quite an OC, but not really a Sonic character either. Ecco created by Appaloosa Interactive. On that note, its probably going to be a while before I update again. I expected to have most of the story done by this time, but the real world has been getting in the way, and I already kind of feel like I'm rushig to finish and edit some chapters. I'll be back in about a week or two, I think, so be patient, and thanks to all of those been reading._


	10. City by the Sea

**City by the Sea**

It had been a few days since Tails and Cosmo had returned with the Chaos Emerald. That made three in their possession, one in Metal Sonic's, a big fat zero for Dr. Eggman, and three more unaccounted for. Well, two actually. Sonic and Tails were on the bridge discussing their next destination, which Sonic had picked out, when they discovered the location of another Emerald. Tails brought up his map screen, but instead of the usual flashing dot that would normally mark an Emerald's location, a small box appeared surrounding an island not far from their current location.

"That's weird," Tails remarked, "The Emerald is somewhere in that area, but my tracker can't get a fix on it..."

Sonic recognized the place immediately, and made a quick decision. He turned to the fox and said "Hey, Tails, since we have to go that way anyhow, why don't we make this my destination?"

Tails was a bit surprised by the sudden change, "Are ya sure, Sonic?"

"You bet, buddy!" Sonic replied "Since we've got three groups looking for the Emeralds now, we've gotta speed things up, and I've been meaning to visit that island anyways. You know where that is, don't 'cha?"

Tails thought for a minute before he too recognized the island they would be headed for. The fox had been there several times himself, and was surprised that he hadn't recognized the little island right off the bat. He was also a little surprised that Sonic would want to take them all to a place that was so important to him. He set a course for the island and activated all of the ships communication channels so he could speak to the rest of the crew, "Attention everyone, there's been a slight change of plans, and we'll be arriving at our next destination within the hour. Please come to the bridge for a quick briefing."

When Tails flicked off the communicator, Sonic spoke to him, "Hey Tails..."

"Yeah, Sonic?"

"Don't tell the others anything about where we're goin'. I want it to be a surprise," Sonic said with a quick wink.

Tails nodded, "Sure thing, Sonic."

* * *

During their quick meeting, Tails had informed the others of the situation. He'd told them that Sonic knew the area, and since the ship was unable to pinpoint the location of the next Emerald, Sonic had volunteered to make this his chosen destination and lead the search for the gem.

Shadow, of course, wasn't content to simply follow Sonic around. He decided he would split off from the others to look for the Emerald, and told them as much. Rouge, as usual, decided to go with him, and Mighty did as well, since he thought splitting up was a good idea. Shadow didn't know much about the armadillo, but he'd seen him fight. The black hedgehog would never admit it, but he knew he might need help if Metal Sonic and his goons showed up again, so he agreed to let Mighty tag along.

The first thing the group noticed when they saw the shoreline of Christmas Island was the enormous lighthouse that the area was famous for. The structure was beautifully designed, and looked somewhat like a giant white chess piece. Sonic was more interested in the town that lay just beyond that structure. When he was very young, the place had been no more than a small village. It had no name, and still doesn't. When asked where they lived the town's residents would simply say "Christmas Island" and leave it at that. Very few people lived outside of town, so anyone who lived on the island probably called that place home. It had changed in the years since Sonic had left, and while the place was still small compared to a city like Soleanna, it had grown much larger since Sonic's childhood days. He had left that place years ago, wanting to see the big world outside, but every time he returned to this island he found that he kind of missed way things used to be.

The two groups split up when they got to the dock. Shadow, Rouge and Mighty went out into the wilderness, while Sonic and the rest searched the town.

It was a short walk from the dock to the edge of town, and when they got there Sonic leaned over to Tails and said, "Can you start the tour without me? I need to take care of something."

Tails nodded in response. He'd been here enough times to know where everything was.

"Be back in a flash, guys!" Sonic said as he ran off.

"Hey!" Amy screamed indignantly. He was well out of range by now, though, so she just crossed her arms and growled, "I swear, Sonic can't sit still for even a minute! And he ALWAYS leaves me behind!"

"Let's just start looking around, guys." Tails said, ignoring her tirade, "I've been here before, so I'll lead the search until Sonic gets back."

They walked through the streets, with Tails leading them on a sort of sightseeing tour while they searched for any sign of the Chaos Emerald. It was a small town, so the place didn't have all that much to see, but there were a few old buildings and monuments of interest.

Though Cosmo found the town to be a pleasant place, she was also quickly becoming very uncomfortable. There were Mobians everywhere, and unlike in Soleanna where most people had been too busy to notice her, several people they passed turned to stare at the plant girl. She was a stranger in a strange place, and strange looking at that. Being around all of these curious people made the seedrian acutely aware of the fact that she was literally an alien here. She wanted very much disappear right now. She would have loved to just grab Tails' namesakes and hide her face in their bulky fluff, but he was leading the search for the Emerald, and she knew if she let on how she was feeling it would distract him. She didn't want to be a bother.

Cream was the first to notice her friend's discomfort, and walked over to her. "Are you alright, Cosmo?" She quietly asked.

Cosmo jumped a bit, seeming surprised to hear someone speaking to her. When she'd regained her composure she said, "Yes, yes I'm fine, thanks."

Cream smiled. Cosmo wasn't a very good liar, so even the young rabbit could see through her words. Cosmo just didn't want to tell her what was wrong, so Cream decided it would be best simply to try and take her friend's mind off of things, "How are you enjoying the trip so far, Cosmo?"

The seedrian smiled at her, "I like it a lot! Your planet has so many interesting things to see!" That was no lie. She very much enjoyed travelling from one exotic place to the next on the Sea Storm. It reminded her of her time on the Blue Typhoon.

"Yeah, it's really nice here, especially when Dr. Eggman's not doing anything nasty." Cream told her, "but you know, this isn't just our planet now. We all want you to feel at home here, too!"

Home… for Cosmo, home had always been a spaceship. She was born in space, and had lived there ever since, first with her people, and then with Tails and the others on the Blue Typhoon. Her mother had told her stories of how their people had once lived on a beautiful planet, in homes of their own, and Cosmo had always wondered how that would feel. Now she was here, on a beautiful planet, sharing a home with someone she loved, and she was happy, but she felt out of place. Her whole life had been spent gazing out of windows at the passing stars, a pastime her sister had often teased her about. Now the sky was blue all around her, and she was surrounded by animals rather than other seedrians like Galaxina. It just felt… off, somehow.

A gust of wind quickly blew by Tails and the others before stopping right in front of them. "Hey, guys!" Sonic said with a grin, "Did ya miss me?"

"Sonic where were you?" Amy asked irritably.

Sonic put his hand on the back of his head and explained, "I was just out prepairin' a little surprise for you guys!" He turned back to Tails, "Didja find anything?"

"Not yet, Sonic," Tails answered him, "We've only searched around for a little while, though, so I'm not ready to give up yet."

"Maybe we should ask around," Sonic said, "Everyone here is pretty friendly, so I'm sure if anyone's seen anything they'll tell us."

"Then let's split into groups to make things faster," Tails said, "I'll finish up this side with Knuckles and Cosmo, while you take Amy and Cream to the other side of town and check there."

"Okay, and we can meet back at my old house when we're done," Sonic replied.

"Your house? You used to live here, Sonic?" Amy asked, a little unnerved that she'd missed this in her years of Sonic obsession.

"Yup! That's how me and Tails know the area so well!" The blue hedgehog explained.

After the two groups split off they searched for hours attempting to find the Emerald, but nobody in town had seen it, and Tails still couldn't figure out why his tracker wouldn't work. Sonic and Tails both had friends in the area, and they each stopped by to chat and see how things were. It was during one such visit that Knuckles noticed something, or rather someone familiar. While Tails was talking mechanics with an old walrus named Rotor, the echidna spied a purple figure with a brown hat and boots turning around a corner. If that was who he thought it was...

"Hey!" Knuckles yelled as he ran after the figure. However, when he reached the corner that his quarry had turned, the person was nowhere to be found. He looked around in confusion. Had he been mistaken?

"Knuckles, what's wrong?" Tails asked as he and Cosmo caught up.

"Must've been my imagination..." Knuckles muttered as he turned to the other two, "So, what now?"

"I guess we head back and meet up with Sonic and the others," Tails replied.

"Hopefully they've had better luck," Cosmo added.

* * *

The two groups met by the front gate of a house on a fairly large property. Having both met with failure, most of the crew seemed somewhat dejected. The lone exception was a cocky, blue hedgehog.

"Oh, well," said Sonic, "We'll find it eventually. Right now I've got that surprise I promised for ya!" He went up to the door of the house and knocked loudly. A moment later, a pale purple hedgehog came to the door. Sonic grinned and greeted her, "Hi, Mom!"

There was a collective shout of "MOM!?!?" from everyone except for Tails, who had already been introduced to Sonic's family.

"Hello, Sonic! These must be the friends you were telling me about," Sonic's mother said sweetly, "Well, come on in. Dinner's almost ready and your father's setting the table as we speak."

* * *

_Author's Note: Back! That took waaaay longer than I wanted it to. Now that I've finally gotten this story mostly done, I can start posting again. I'll probably be posting every other day rather than every day like I was, just to make sure that I have time to polish the chapters before I get them up._


	11. Family Reunions

**Family Reunions**

The home of Ren and Aleena the Hedgehog was quite cozy. Amy decided that she would have to swap decorating tips with Sonic's mother right after she got over the fact that she was actually meeting Sonic's parents! This was a big step in their relationship! Sure there were extenuating circumstances, and sure the entire crew would be there for dinner, but she was meeting Sonic's parents! She looked around the house once again. Sonic, Cosmo, and Tails were sitting in the living room with Sonic's dad, and Knuckles was already sitting at the table, and appeared to be deep in thought. Cream was in the Kitchen helping Aleena with the food, and Amy figured that was probably a good place for her to be as well. Hopefully, that would give her some time to talk with Sonic's mom about a few things.

* * *

"So let me get this straight, lad," Sonic's dad said to Tails, "You're tellin' me that you actually got my son on a _boat _and you're currently traveling all over the world on holiday?" Tails nodded, and Ren laughed enthusiastically "Boy you don't know how happy I am to hear that! It makes me proud to know that my boy's finally following in his old man's footsteps!" The elder hedgehog then placed his hand on Sonic's head and proceeded to ruffle his quills. Sonic hated it when people touched his quills, but he tolerated the gesture from his father.

Ren was a tall, yellow-eyed, navy blue hedgehog, and also a seasoned sailor. He'd travelled all over the world with his own crew of misfits in his youth, sailing the seas to wherever the wind might take him. Thus, the fact that his son was utterly terrified of water had been a point of barely hidden shame for Ren. The first time he'd tried to take his son on a boat was also the first time they learned the boy could break the sound barrier after he'd run away screaming! Fortunately, Sonic had turned out to be a brave and adventurous lad, and really a good kid all around, so his father could still be proud of him despite that particular flaw.

"And I see you've also managed to find yourself a girlfriend," Ren said to Tails with a sly grin. The fox jumped at his words, wondering how the older hedgehog knew. He looked at Cosmo, who just smiled back at him. Then he looked down and realized he was holding her hand, and had probably been doing so for some time now. Funny how little gestures like that can become so habitual that we do them unconsciously.

Sonic and his father both chuckled at Tails' confusion. When their laughter subsided, the elder hedgehog took a good look at each of the boys. They were growing up so fast, now. It seemed to him they'd each grown a foot since the last time he'd seen them. He could still clearly remember the day Sonic was born, so small that when he curled into a ball he could almost fit in the palm of your hand, and with quills so soft they could hardly be called quills at all. He also remembered the day his son had brought Tails home to them for the first time. Just as Sonic considered the fox to be his little brother, Ren and Aleena had come to think of him as an adopted son. Looking at them now, Ren was almost starting to feel old. He shook the feeling off almost physically. Young he was not, but neither was he an old-timer, and he would not think himself so until he saw his first great-grandchild! And speaking of great-grand children…

"So that pink girl in the kitchen," Ren began, "I assume she's the one that's always chasing you around?"

Sonic put his hand on the back of his head and gave a sort of embarrassed laugh, "Heh, yup, she's the one! And… you were right," he finished, almost inaudibly.

Ren nodded, "Course I was. She's just like your mother."

Sonic got a bit defensive at that, "Whoa, wait a minute, Pops, Amy is NOTHING like Mom!"

"Well, maybe not her attitude," Ren admitted, "Aleena's always been quiet and gentle, while this one seems like a real firecracker. But they both have something in common that makes them very much alike."

"What's that?" Tails asked.

Ren answered, giving his boy's quills another good ruffle, "They're the only ones with enough patience and persistence to deal with the likes of us in the long haul!"

* * *

The food was just about ready, and Amy was helping Cream and Aleena with the final preparations. Amy was still trying to get over the fact that she was talking to Sonic's mother! The girl was uncharacteristically nervous. Normally she didn't care what anyone but Sonic (and to a lesser extent, Cream) thought of her, but this was different. These were the people she was planning to make her future in-laws, and she knew nothing about them! How much did they people know about her? What had Sonic told them? What did they think of her? Had Sonic mentioned her to them at all?

The three had been making small-talk while they worked on the food, and now that it was nearly done, Amy decided that if she was ever going to find out what they thought of her, now was the time.

"So, what has Sonic told you about all of us?" Amy asked innocently.

"Just the bits and parts Sonic has mentioned while talking about his adventures. Its really very nice to finally meet all of you in person." Aleena gave her a knowing smile, "I've noticed you tend to follow him around a lot in those stories. Any particular reason for that?"

Amy giggled a bit, "Well, I should probably let Sonic tell you this, but I just happen to be his girlfriend! It just took me a while to get him to see how perfect we are together."

"I figured it might be something like that," Sonic's mother sighed, "That boy is just like his father. Always running around in search of adventure and you've gotta chase him all over the world just to get his attention."

Amy looked thoughtful for a moment. If Sonic was just like his father…, "So you had to chase after Sonic's dad, too?"

"Oh yes, dear," Aleena replied, "And while he wasn't as fast as Sonic, he was just as hard to find, always sailing around from one continent to the next. Have you ever tried to find a single ship in the ocean? It's not easy, let me tell you! It was worth it, though," she got a sort of far off look in her eyes as she continued, "You see, I wasn't much older then you when I was working at a little pub in a Port Town in Mercia."

"Mercia? Isn't that where you're from, Amy?" Cream asked as she took some potatoes to the table. Amy nodded in response.

"Ahh, maybe you've been there, then," Aleena said, "Anyway, I was cleaning up after work when a fairly rowdy group of pirates came in. When I told them the place was closed, they left and took me with them!"

"That sounds scary!" Cream exclaimed, and cheese chirped in agreement.

"Oh I was terrified!" Aleena told her, "Fortunately another group of sailors heard me scream, and came to my rescue. There was a big fight, but the captain of my rescue party managed to get me away and take me home. The young captain then kissed my hand, bade me goodnight, and left before I could even ask his name. He was such a dashing gentleman that I decided then and there that I'd find him again. Long story short, I chased that hedgehog over half the world before I realized I loved him, and then when he finally took me aboard I sailed with him over the other half to convince him to marry me."

Amy felt a sudden sense of vindication, now. She had often wondered if all of her running around was ever going to get Sonic's attention. Now she realized that it was probably the ONLY way to get his attention. HAH!

Aleena handed the girl a plate of food, "Here, dear, why don't you go set this on the table and let the others know dinner is ready," she then smiled and conspiratorially added, "I'll make sure you get a seat right next to Sonic."

Amy returned her smile and went off to do as she was told. Aleena grabbed another plate and brought it to the table, glancing at Sonic and Tails as she did. Tails looked so much older now, and Sonic was the spitting image of his father at that age, if a little lighter in color. She smiled to herself. Her boys were certainly growing up.

* * *

Dinner at Sonic's old home was often a large affair. Ren's crew had often gathered there to relive old times and talk about their lives. Now Sonic was continuing the tradition with his own group of friends. The food had long since been polished off, and now they were all taking turns telling stories about their various adventures, especially the most recent ones.

Knuckles was only half listening to the talk. He'd put in his two cents when he felt it was needed, but he was more concerned with the day's earlier events. The echidna was certain he'd seen someone he knew earlier, a thief who had been getting into both his and Rouge's way for some time now. If he was here, maybe he knew something about the Chaos Emerald.

Knuckles nearly jumped out of his skin when his thoughts were interrupted by his communicator beeping. After excusing himself from the table, he went into the living room and flipped it open to see that Rouge was calling him. The echidna called to the others, "Hey, guys, quiet down in there! Rouge is calling!"

"Did they find the Chaos Emerald?" Cream asked.

"We'll know in a minute," He replied.

Rouge's voice came over the communicator when he opened the channel, "This is Rouge calling Knuckles, are ya there big guy?"

"I'm here, Rouge," Knuckles answered, "What's up?"

* * *

Dr. Ivo Robotnik, better known as Dr. Eggman, was ecstatic. He was on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere, a place so small that it wasn't even on the map. His robots were currently digging in the sand at the location where he knew he would find one of the Chaos Emeralds. Best of all, his scouts reported no sign of the Sea Storm anywhere in the vicinity. No hedgehogs, no two-tailed foxes, no echidnas or rabbits or plant-girls or anyone else to get in his way! It wouldn't be long before that Emerald was his, and then he would use it to power a machine that he could use to acquire the other Emeralds from Sonic and his annoying little friends.

Only a few moments later, the dig-bots grew very excited. Their leader scooped something up off of the ground and approached his master. In the machine's claw was the yellow Chaos Emerald.

"Here you are, my liege," the machine said in a monotone voice. The doctor snatched the gem up eagerly, and laughed at his triumph. His mirth was short-lived, however.

A panicked Bocoe and Decoe came running up to their master. "Dr. Eggman, there's a message from one of the scouts! We've got trouble!" the shorter 'bot said.

The radio was tuned on and another voice came from it, "Master, there is a large ship headed this way. I believe it's the-" the voice died suddenly as several metallic clangs were heard, followed by an explosion. Eggman looked at the radio worriedly. This could not be good.

As if to confirm his fears, the tiny island was suddenly surrounded by dozens of what had one been Egg Pawns. Now they were servants of a new master, and they were better and badder than ever. Eggman and his robots were now hopelessly outnumbered.

A voice from behind the doctor suddenly caught his attention, "My metal minions work quite efficiently, don't you think, '_master'_?" The last word was dripping with sarcasm. Eggman turned to face the voice, though he already knew who it belonged to. Metal Sonic stood before him; in one hand he held a wicked-looking scythe, while the other hand was stretched out as if to receive something, "I believe you know what I'm here for."

Dr. Eggman weighed his choices, wondering briefly if his own creation, his 'son', so to speak, would actually destroy him. The doctor sighed heavily. If it wasn't Sonic and his friends getting in the way, it was something else! Though right now, Eggman thought he would gladly have taken Sonic's interference over this any day.

* * *

_Author's Note: Shorter chapter, but I didn't to go too far into the background of Sonic's parents (save that for another story, maybe). Just so you know, Aleena is a reference to Sonic's mother in the older Sonic cartoons, while Ren is a direct reference to the old Pirates of Dark Water._


	12. To Catch a Thief

**To Catch a Thief**

In their search for the Chaos Emerald, Shadow, Rouge, and Mighty were currently trudging through a large swamp located a few miles outside of town. Or rather, Shadow and Mighty were trudging while Rouge, who couldn't be bothered to dirty her boots, flew. They had been wandering the area for about an hour now, making sure to be thorough so that they didn't accidentally miss anything. The process was becoming more difficult by the moment though. They had spent most of the day combing the beaches and woodlands of the island before finding this swamp, and it was getting late. The sun was setting, and darkness was gradually overtaking them.

The search was interrupted when Mighty noticed something in the distance, "Hey guys, look!"

Rouge and Shadow both turned to where the armadillo was pointing, and saw a light glimmering in the shadows about 100 feet away.

"Great, now maybe we can get out of this place," Shadow said as he walked toward the light.

"I dunno, guys," Rouge said, crossing her arms, "I've seen a lot of jewels in my life, and that doesn't look like the glow of an Emerald."

"May as well take a look, though," Mighty said as he followed after Shadow. Rouge just sighed and flew after the others.

As it turned out, Rouge was right. The glow was actually coming from the window of a small house in the middle of the swamp. It was a bit run down, and more than a little creepy, but that had never stopped Shadow before, and whoever lived here might know something about the Chaos Emerald. Without a second thought, the hedgehog walked up to the door and knocked. After a moment, he was rewarded by the sound of a lock clicking open, and the door swung inward. The three were greeted by a heavily cloaked figure whose face was hidden under a hood.

The figure looked at each of them before gruffly saying, "Can I help you?"

"We're looking for the Chaos Emeralds," Shadow informed him, "And we're fairly certain one of them landed near here. Know anything about it?"

The figure seemed interested now, "A Chaosss Emerald... Yesss I might know sssomethhing about thhat," He stepped aside and signaled for them to enter, "Come, let usss disscusss thhisss inssside."

The three took his invitation and entered the home. The figure removed his cloak, and they were not terribly surprised to see that their host was an old, tan cobra. He slithered over to an old cabinet and opened it, revealing a variety of odd trinkets. Among them was the Green Chaos Emerald.

"So it is here," Rouge commented, "but I wonder why our scanners couldn't find it."

"Thhat, my dear, isss due to the interferenccce of my magic," The serpent informed her.

"Magic!?!" Mighty exclaimed.

"Yesss," the old snake bowed slighty as he introduced himself, "My name is Vyre, and I am a sssorcccerer."

"Riiight," Rouge said, not really buying his explanation, "Well, I'm Rouge, and these two are Shadow and Mighty. Anyway, we kinda need that Emerald, so if you wouldn't mind..."

Vyre cut her off with a hiss and a stern look, "I don't believe I sssaid I would let you have it. I'm not in the habit of jussst giving away itemsss of sssuch extreme power asss thisss!" He turned back to the others, "However, I might be persssuaded to trade for it."

"And what might we have that would be of such value to you?" Shadow asked.

Mighty was growing somewhat afraid of their host, "You're not gonna try and get us to trade our souls or somethin' are ya?"

Vyre let out a rough, hissing laugh, "Nothhing ssso diabolical. In fact, I doubt you would have thhe item in quessstion on you at thhe moment. You sssee, my home was burglarizssed a few days ago. Thhe thheivesss could not get into my cabinet, but thhey were able to get an item of great importanccce to me: A magical pendant."

"And you want us to get it back," Shadow concluded.

"Correct. I'd do it myssself, but I'm a bit too old to be chasssing lowlifesss acrosss thhe island," the cobra said, "Do thhisss for me, and thhe Emerald isss yoursss."

Shadow nodded and turned to leave. Rouge and Mighty gave each other a questioning look before following. When they were far enough away from the house, Rouge broke the silence that had settled over them, "Hey, Shadow, what gives? Normally you would have just ripped the hinges off that cabinet's doors and taken the Emerald."

Shadow didn't even look at her as he spoke, "I didn't feel like getting into a fight. I could feel the power coming from that old serpent. You'd be wise to take him more seriously."

"I'd listen to him, if I were you, Rouge," Mighty added, "I've dealt with a few magic users in my travels, some good, and some bad. You really DON'T want to mess with the bad ones if you don't have to. Not unless you want a really bad day."

The bat stared at both of them incredulously. She'd raided the tombs of a few supposed "wizards", but she'd never actually seen someone do actual magic before. Did they really think this guy was for real? Regardless, it looked like they were going to be stuck looking for a thief.

"Well," she said, "since we know where the Emerald is, we should probably let the others know what's up." She pulled out her communicator and dialed up Knuckles, "This is Rouge calling Knuckles, are ya there big guy?"

The echidna's voice came back, "I'm here, Rouge. What's up?"

"We found the Chaos Emerald, but the guy who has it won't give it up until we find this pendant that was stolen from him," she replied.

"Well, if it's a thief you're looking for, I think I know just the one," Knuckles said.

"Hey, I was nowhere near that place!" Rouge snapped.

"Not YOU!" Knuckles shot back, "I can't be certain, but I thought I saw an old friend of ours earlier today. Remember Nack?"

"Oh, do I ever!" the bat groaned.

Shadow raised an eyebrow, "Who's Nack?"

"Nack the Weasel," she explained, "a.k.a. Fang the Sniper. He's an even bigger thief than I am, and not half as discriminating. He'll take anything that's not nailed down if he thinks there's money in it. And while I'm at it, he's a total jerk. If he's here, it's a safe bet he's our culprit." She turned back to the communicator, "Why didn't you follow him, Knucklebrain?"

"I tried, but I lost him. I'm not even really sure it was him anyways," Knuckles said defensively.

Rouge sighed, "Well, it's better than what we had five minutes ago. Just keep your eyes peeled."

She put the communicator away and turned back to the others, "Now we know who we're looking for, or at least I do. It's a good thing you guys have me around."

"Definitely," Mighty smirked, "After all, it takes a thief to catch one!"

"And don't you forget it, guy," she told him as she turned to fly away.

* * *

It didn't take long for them to find his hiding place. Nack usually preferred seedier places to roost for the night, places where they didn't really care what went on so long as the patrons could pay for their room and drinks. A few extra rings and the barkeep would swear he'd never seen you. As small as this nameless town was, it had only a two such establishments, and one had recently been closed down.

Rouge flew from window to window of a place called the Nowhere Inn until she finally found him. Lying on a bed with a brown hat over his eyes was a purple weasel with one large fang sticking out of the side of his mouth. That was why he was called Fang the Sniper. Well, that and the large gun sitting in his belt. Rouge was careful to note that weapon as she slipped inside and looked around. Nack appeared to have foolishly left his most recent conquests lying out on a coffee table. She stopped to admire his little collection for a moment. There were several rings, which he appeared to have been counting, as well as some gem encrusted jewelry that the bat thought she might just take with her. Finally, she saw what she had come for: an ornate silver pendant with a strange symbol carved in the middle. She was just about to grab it when she felt something cold and metallic pressed against the back of her head.

"I don't think so, pretty lady," Nack said from behind her. Rouge sighed and put both hands in the air.

The weasel smirked as he continued; "I saw your dimwit boyfriend a little while ago and figured you wouldn't be far behind. Y'know, Rouge, if you really want my stash so bad, you could always come with me. You keep the jewelry, I take the rings, we'd make a great team. Whadaya say?"

"Thanks, but I think my two friends outside would have a problem with that," Rouge informed him. She had been told to get in and out as fast as possible, and having failed that Rouge knew they would be coming up to see what was holding her up.

Right on cue, Shadow and Mighty warped into the room, holding one of the Chaos Emeralds. Nack turned and fired his gun at the newcomers, but the hedgehog easily dodged it, and Mighty ducked just in time to allow the bullet to ricochet harmlessly off of his shell. Rouge took this chance to deliver a spinning kick right to the weasel's face, knocking him to the floor. If anyone else in the little building heard the commotion, they didn't pay it any mind.

Rouge quickly turned and grabbed the pendant from the table. She was about to grab the other jewels, but a hard look from Shadow made her think twice. The pendant was the only thing they needed here, and Shadow's typical 'focus on the mission' mentality left no room for the bat's kleptomania. He put a hand on each of his team members and said, "Chaos Control," to warp them back out of the building.

* * *

Having retrieved the item and trudged back through the swamp, the group once again found themselves on Vyre's doorstep. The old snake was quite surprised to see them, since they had only been gone a couple of hours. "Back already?" he asked.

Shadow held up the pendant, and Vyre's wide-eyed expression confirmed that it was the one he was looking for, "Looksss like I picked thhe right people for thhe job."

"Now for your end of the bargain," Rouge said.

Vyre nodded, "Asss promisssed. Pleassse, come inssside."

When they'd gathered in his home he once again opened the strange cabinet and took out the Green Emerald. He traded it for the pendant, and immediately placed his returned treasure around his neck.

"So what's that thing do, anyway?" Mighty asked, "It must be really powerful to be so important to a wizard."

"Power isss not everythhing, my boy," Vyre said with a sad smile. He placed a hand on the pendant and muttered a few words, and it began to glow softly. A small crease appeared in the treasure where none had been, and then the pendant split apart and swung on some unseen hinge. There were two sides now, each with a picture in it. This most important treasure was actually a locket! One of the pictures was obviously Vyre in his younger years, while the other was an attractive serpent that they'd never seen before.

"My wife," Vyre explained as they stared at the pictures, "She died a few years back, and this is all I have left to remember her by."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Shadow said.

"Don't be," the cobra told him, "She lived a long, full life, and died peacccefully. We should all be ssso fortunate."

Rouge looked at the hedgehog in shock. In all the time she'd known him, she had NEVER heard him offer such words of kindness, especially to someone he barely knew! She knew he'd been acting a little weird lately; he still wore that same, apathetic scowl that he always had, but somehow, Shadow had changed.

Vyre graciously thanked them for returning the locket, and the group said their goodbyes and left.

"I dunno about you guys, but I can't wait to get back to the ship for some shut-eye!" Mighty said. It was a lie, of course. He wouldn't be able to sleep until he'd written all of this down in his journal and drawn a picture of the old snake, and he wanted to get started before he forgot any details. He quickly started the trek back through the swamp.

Shadow was about to follow when Rouge flew in front of him, "Hang on, Shadow!" He stopped and waited for her to speak.

Rouge wasn't entirely sure how to approach this, as Shadow wasn't usually fond of sharing his thoughts. Still, she had to know what was going on, "Alright, guy, spill it. You've been acting a little different ever since you got back. You're actually almost pleasant! Did you hit your head and get amnesia again or something?"

He was silent for a moment, and Rouge was just starting to think that he wouldn't answer her when he finally spoke, "Its just the opposite."

She looked at him, curious. She hoped he wouldn't do his usual Mr. Mysterious routine and leave her hanging with just that. In fact, that was just what he'd been planning to do, but Shadow saw that the bat wanted more, and knew that she would be pestering him until she figured it out. He sighed and decided to let her in on the reason for his sudden change.

"I remember, Rouge. I remember _everything_. Who I am, who I was... who I wanted to be..." the hedgehog closed his eyes and shook his head, as if trying to shake off a bad memory, "I'm not sure what happened after the final battle, or how I survived, but I woke up on Molly's home planet. Took me a while to make my way back here, so I had a lot of time to think. I took a really good look at myself for the first time in ages," he looked Rouge square in the eye, now, "Let's just say I didn't like what I saw... and neither would she..."

"Shadow...", Rouge was speechless. She simply didn't know what to say to that. Luckily, she didn't have to.

Mighty had only gone a few yards when he realized the others weren't following. He immediately turned around to make sure that nothing was wrong. The armadillo sighed with relief and smiled when found the two talking right where he'd left them. "Hey, can't you slowpokes walk and talk at the same time?" he joked.

Shadow's face immediately turned cold as he turned to face the joker, "Hmph, I'll show you who's the slowpoke." With that, he sped off toward the Sea Storm.

Rouge laughed as she and Mighty followed him out of the swamp. Now _that_ was the Shadow she knew.

* * *

_Author's Note: Finally back to the meat of things! For those few of you who didn't get it, the 'she' Shadow was reffering to is Maria. _

_On a lighter note, anyone else enjoying all the snow?_


	13. Intermezzo

Intermezzo

It was nice to have a few days to relax, for once. It would be a little while before the Sea Storm reached their next destination, and the ship's passengers were using that time to take advantage of the various amenities on board. Amy was in the pool, futilely attempting to get Sonic to join her. Rouge, Knuckles and Shadow were in the game room, and Rouge was enjoying watching the two boys try to out-do each other at every activity available. The only one who seemed unsure of what to do with the free time was Cream. She had already played with Cheese in the pool today, and she didn't really want to be the game room while Shadow and Knuckles were in there. Those two played a little too rough for her tastes. She thought that Tails and Cosmo might want to play with her, but when she got to the deck she found the two of them napping in a lounge chair, and didn't want to disturb them.

As she walked around the deck, the rabbit spotted Mighty sitting in a corner, writing something in a book that he always seemed to carry with him. She noticed him doing that often, and always wondered what he was writing in there. Cream decided that today would be a good day to find out, and walked over to him. The armadillo looked up when he noticed someone walking toward him, and waved to her when he saw who it was.

"Hi, Mighty!" Cream said "What are you doing over here all by yourself?"

"Well, c'mere, I'll show ya!" he replied with a good natured smile. She sat down next him and peered into the book. In it, she was surprised to find a mostly-finished picture of the whole group drawn in colored pencil. She'd had no idea that he could draw so well! Sonic had one arm wrapped around Amy, who was leaning on her trademark hammer, while the other arm was held out in a thumbs-up. Next to them were Tails and Cosmo, who were holding hands. A smirking Knuckles was immortalized in a fighting pose, apparently oblivious to the fact that Rouge was pictured flying above, winking at him. Shadow stood off to the side with his arms crossed and a cool look in his eyes, and Mighty himself stood in a very relaxed pose, with Cheese sitting on his head (in spite of her scolding, the little Chao actually did that quite often). For some reason Cream felt her cheeks warm a bit when she saw that her own smiling form had been drawn next to his. Below the picture was a list of their names, with descriptions written for each.

"This is my travel journal, Cream" Mighty informed her, "It's where I write about all of the places I go and the new things an people I see. I like to draw pictures of the things I want to remember. I guess I could just use a camera or somethin', but drawing it out helps it stick in my mind better. Sorta like how writing something down helps you remember it, y'know?"

Cream nodded her head and looked back to the book, "And you wanted to remember us?"

"You bet! Its always good to remember your friends, kiddo!" Mighty flipped through his book to show her his other drawings. There were pictures of all kinds of people, places, and things from all over the world. There was an old cobra with a strange pendant, and a purple weasel that kind of looked like a cowboy. The mushroom cave was there as well, along with the Starlight Gorge, and his Ex gear. She recognized a few of them; some were even places they'd been recently. With each page, Mighty would give a little description of what was pictured and where he'd seen it, sort of the condensed version of what he'd already written on the page itself.

The bunny drank in every detail eagerly, and noticed that Cheese also seemed to be delighted by the images (he was, once again, perched on the armadillo's plated head). For his part, Mighty was just glad to have someone to tell his stories to. He liked reliving his old memories, digging up old relics from his mind that he'd almost forgotten about. The armadillo was not old by any means, but he'd done quite a lot in his seventeen years and his notebook had grown thick.

They'd only gone through about a quarter of the book when they heard a loud crash from the back of the boat.

"We'd better go check that out!" Mighty said as he closed his journal. Cream was reluctant to go, as she wanted to hear more of his stories, but she knew there would be time later for that. She picked Cheese up off of Mighty's head and the two dashed off toward the source of the noise.

* * *

Cosmo drifted in and out of sleep as she sat nestled against Tails in a lounge chair. She was thinking about how things had been when she'd first met Tails and the others. She had been terribly frightened, traveling alone to some unknown planet full of people who were very much unlike her. It didn't help that she was going crazy, or at least that's what she thought at the time. She'd been hearing voices in her head, malevolent voices that spoke in a strange tongue. She could never quite make out what they were saying, but somehow she knew that they were talking to or about her. She never dared to tell anyone about this; it had been hard enough to get her new friends to trust her in the beginning, and telling them that she heard voices wouldn't help things any. When she finally figured out what those voices were, she wasn't sure whether to be relieved that she wasn't crazy or horrified at what Dark Oak had forced her to become.

The voices were gone, now. Her death and rebirth had changed all of that. She had almost forgotten how calm and peaceful a quiet mind could be. Well, mostly quiet, anyway. There was one voice that remained in Cosmo's mind, but it was not one that she was afraid of, as those other voices had been. This voice came from the crystal that she wore even now. She had told the others back on the Blue Typhoon that the gem sometimes gave her glimpses of the future. What she had not mentioned was that the visions were sometimes accompanied by a voice that she now recognized as her mother's.

Right now, though, that voice was telling the seedrian to do something that she really didn't feel like doing. She was curled up comfortably next to her sleeping fox, who currently had both his arms and tails wrapped around her. Cosmo wondered for a moment if Tails had any idea how much she loved it when he did that. His fluffy tails were warm and comfortable, and his arms made her feel safe and loved. Frankly, she never wanted to leave this cozy little chair again. Unfortunately, that little voice kept nagging at her, telling her that she needed to check the Master Emerald for some reason. She could clearly see a picture of the gem in her mind, and for some reason she was standing on top of it! Cosmo really didn't want to move, but she knew from experience that when the voice spoke it was best to listen. She would never forgive herself if something happened to the large gem because she'd ignored the warnings. She slowly slid out of Tails' embrace, being careful not to wake him, and then walked down to the engine room where the Master Emerald was kept.

Upon her arrival, Cosmo was somewhat surprised to find that everything seemed to be in perfect working order. Not that she had really expected to find one of Tails' devices broken, but surely she hadn't been directed to this place for no reason. Since all of the readings on the ship's instruments seemed normal, she decided to check on the Emerald itself. She looked for any cracks or other forms of damage that might cause a problem, but again found nothing out of the ordinary. Cosmo placed her hands on the great stone. She could feel the energy radiating from it. It was familiar to her, somehow. In fact, it felt almost exactly like a Planet Egg! She wondered for a moment if she could tap into the Emerald's energies the same way she could tap into a Planet Egg's. Then maybe she could...maybe she could what? Her mother would have been able to control the Egg's energy easily, but Cosmo herself had never had a chance to develop the skill. The last time she had used the power of a Planet Egg she had lost control of it, and the resulting energies had caused the surrounding plant life to attack friend and foe alike. Did she really want to risk having something like that happen here? And what would she do with that power anyway? But there was that voice in the back of her head again, telling her that this was right, that this was part of what she came here to learn. She reached out to it, trying to tap into its power, only to find herself locked out. She could feel the Master Emerald's energy, but she was unable to access it in any way. As she pondered this development, she heard a gruff voice from behind her, "Cosmo?" She turned to face the voice's owner, though she already knew who it would be.

"What are you doing down here?" Knuckles asked her.

Knuckles... she had seen him use the Master Emerald's power on numerous occasions while they were in space, so he must know how to tap into it. She kept that thought in the back of her mind for now, though. She was a terrible liar, but Cosmo didn't really want to tell Knuckles what she had been trying to do, fearing his reaction. Instead, she brought up one of her other concerns, "I was just thinking about something that Tails said earlier, about how Sonic had a super form for both the positive and negative sides of the Chaos Emeralds."

"Go on," Knuckles said.

"Well," she continued, "what do you think would happen if he were to use both sides at the same time?"

"Hmph, good luck with that!" the echidna growled, "Most people can't handle using both the positive and negative energies of the Emeralds at once. If you grab hold of one side, the other slips away, and if you try to grab both at once, you lose them both! In fact, the only reason I don't say that its outright impossible is that I've seen Sonic do it once."

"What happened?" Cosmo asked.

"It was when he and I first met, right before Eggman took the Master Emerald to power his Death Egg. Somehow Sonic used the Master Emerald to change the Chaos Emeralds into Super Emeralds, and he used their power to tap into both sides and transform into an incredible being that we later called Hyper Sonic. Unfortunately that goof-off doesn't know how he did it! He doesn't even know if he was the one who caused the Emeralds' transformation!" Knuckles was shaking with anger now. The thought that Sonic could have done something with the Master Emerald that he, its chosen guardian, could not utterly infuriated him. He stifled his anger before continuing, "After Sonic reverted back to his normal state, the Emeralds did as well. Me, Sonic and Tails have been trying to figure out how it happened ever since."

Cosmo took all of this information in slowly. Could this be what she had come here to learn? Was it possible that she could enact this transformation? Maybe if Knuckles opened the flow to her she could find a way! She wasn't sure, but there was only one way to find out. She decided to tell Knuckles what she had actually come here for. Unfortunately, "Knuckles, I think-" was all she was able to get out before a loud crash from above interrupted her. She and Knuckles had only enough time to look up before a ball of energy erupted from the newly created hole in the engine room's ceiling. It landed directly between the two, knocking them both out cold.

Metal Sonic drifted down through the hole he had made in the ship and surveyed his handiwork. He could kill the two easily in this state, but he knew there was little time. He had not come in quietly, and the others would be here soon to see what all of the commotion was about. He placed a hand on the Master Emerald and started to scan it. He didn't want the gem itself; not yet, anyway. For now he just wanted all of the information he could get. He wanted to understand this great power source and its connection to the Chaos Emeralds. He had completed about ninety percent of the scan when a bolt of energy crashed into the robot from the side. He looked over to find a very miffed Shadow the Hedgehog standing in the doorway.

"Give me back the fake emerald, thief!" the dark hedgehog hissed.

Metal had been hoping for a bit more time, but he had gotten what he came for so there was little point in pressing things further. "Chaos Control," he said, and a moment later he was gone.

* * *

Today was just not Shadow's day. First that dimwit Knuckles had somehow managed to beat him at air hockey, and now Metal Sonic had apparently learned how to use chaos control, making him more dangerous than ever! Even worse, the machine had used this newfound power to warp into Shadow's quarters and steal one of the fake Chaos Emeralds from him, leaving him with only one left! Finally, after realizing that Metal was still on board, Shadow had apparently arrived too late to stop that metal faker from accomplishing whatever goal he had in his mechanical mind. Yeah, really not Shadow's day.

Sonic and Tails were the first ones to reach the scene. The fox's eyes widened in horror when he saw Cosmo on the ground. "Relax kid," Shadow told him, "They're still breathing." Though Tails was relieved to hear this, he still decided to go over and check on her himself.

"What happened here?" Sonic asked.

"Metal Sonic, that's what," Shadow answered irritably, "Apparently that faker's learned to use chaos control."

Sonic showed no emotion at this news. He was not going to allow himself to get freaked out this time. He had already made his decision, and this only strengthened it. To defeat Metal Sonic, especially now, he would need to use his dark super form. That was it. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. This time he would charge in fighting, just like he always had.

And he would not be afraid.

* * *

_Author's Note: Ooooooohhhh, foreshadowy (no pun intended)._


	14. Black Rose

**Black Rose**

The journey had continued after Tails had stopped to make repairs. Fortunately, Metal's surprise attack hadn't hit anything vital to the ship, but it had still royally pissed the little fox off. Not only had that tin can put a huge hole in his beautiful ship, but he had also attacked Cosmo in the process. Tails swore that if he ever got the chance he would personally dismantle that bucket of bolts and melt each individual part down.

That was for another day, though. Today he had just steered the newly patched Sea Storm into a port near Amy's destination, and there just happened to be another Chaos Emerald in that exact place. The structure they were visiting was quite large, easily visible from the port, but when Amy brought them to the front gates, they were quite stunned. Large had been an understatement; this place was palatial!

Amy was the first to speak, "Welcome to the Hanging Gardens of Mobius, home of the largest and most exquisite gardens in the world!"

She wasn't kidding! The place had multiple levels, set up in a somewhat pyramid-like fashion, though the columns that supported each level were more similar to a Greek design. Each floor was overflowing with flowers and trees and other flora of every description, with numerous stairways between levels to allow easy access. Though it was warm year-round in this part of the world, it was still the off-season so very few other tourists were currently in the garden.

"We'll find the Emerald faster if we split up," Sonic said.

Cream piped up, "And the faster we find the emerald, the more time we can spend looking at the pretty flowers!"

"Okay, the garden had twenty floors, so if we split into four groups, we can each search five of them," Amy explained, "Rouge and Tails can search the bottom floors, and Knuckles and Cosmo can search the next set. Shadow, Cream and Mighty can take the third set, and me 'n Sonic can go to the top!" She threw her arms around Sonic as she announced the last group.

Tails, like everyone else, suspected that the pink hedgehog had ulterior motives for her grouping, but the groups were all pretty well balanced, so he didn't really mind. He had been meaning to catch up with Rouge anyway, since he hadn't really talked to the bat since his days of training with her. "Sounds good, Amy," he said, "and if anyone finds anything make sure you contact the others ASAP."

They all split into their respective groups and entered the garden. Tails and Rouge immediately took to the air while the others took the stairs to their various floors. The two flew in spiral patterns around the first floor, stopping every so often to search through some particularly thick foliage. They met up in the center of the floor.

"Find anything?" Tails asked when he saw Rouge.

"Not yet, kid," the bat answered him, "I guess now we try the next floor."

They walked up the stairs to give their wings and tails a brief rest. "So how's the treasure hunting business?" Tails asked as they walked.

"Lucrative," Rouge answered with her usual seductive smirk, "Though it would be even better if Knuckie wouldn't get so worked up when I go off on my own."

"That probably has something to do with where you look for treasure when he's not around," the fox chuckled, "particularly the jewelry stores."

Rouge sighed, "Yeah, he's always tryin' ta keep me on the straight and narrow. The man's like a boy scout with a bad temper," She paused for a moment, unsure if she should continue. The bat liked to keep her secrets, but it wasn't like she was telling the boy something he hadn't already figured out, so she went on, "I guess that's what I like about him, though. He's always willing to help someone in trouble, even a gal like me."

Curious, Tails decided to venture another question, "How are things between you two anyway?"

"Oh, the usual. He and I know how we feel about each other, he's just too shy to say it and I'm having fun watching him squirm." The fox was now getting a bit too nosy for Rouge's taste, and she decided to put him in his place a bit, "Not like you and flower-girl. The way you two act you'd think you were married!"

"M-Married?" Tails stammered, "We're not... I mean, maybe eventually, but... I...um..."

Rouge laughed at the poor boy's reaction, "Relax, kid. I didn't mean anything by it. How is that gal anyway?"

Tails' cheeks were still red when he spoke, "Cosmo? She's adjusting pretty well. I'm just glad I live out in the Mystic Ruins instead of a big city. Its kinda hard for her being the only person on Mobius that isn't some kind of animal."

"So I noticed," Rouge replied as they reached the next floor, "We'll better get started!" And with that she flew off to begin their search.

* * *

Knuckles and Cosmo weren't having much better luck than the group below them. Neither one could fly, so it took them far longer to search. In fact, Tails and Rouge had searched two floors by the time they got through with one. The duo was currently walking up the stairs to their next floor, talking as they went.

"So lemme get this straight," Knuckles was saying, "You think that you might be able to use the Master Emerald to turn the Chaos Emeralds into the Super Emeralds."

"Yes, though I'll need you to allow me access to the Master Emerald's energy," Cosmo told him, making it the third time she'd had to say it.

"And you think you can do this because the mysterious voice in your head told you so," the echidna continued.

"Knuckles, this isn't the first time I've gotten messages like that, especially in an hour of need," she explained, somewhat hurt that he seemed to doubt her.

Knuckles tried to placate the girl, "Its not like I don't believe you Cosmo, Its just that the Master Emerald is a seriously powerful force. It takes years for a guardian like me to learn to control its energy. If I let you try this crazy scheme of yours and something went wrong, it'd be a disaster! At the very least you could break the Emerald or hurt yourself." Not to mention that Tails might never speak to him again if she did hurt herself, or that she could tear a hole in the fabric of space and time, or any number of other things that he really didn't want to think about right now.

The seedrian was unswayed, "But Knuckles, this may be our best chance. Sonic seemed very upset by the idea of using the Chaos Emerald's negative energy, and I can't say I blame him. If we could do this, Sonic could become more powerful without having to do that, and if there's some way I can help, I'll gladly take the risk."

Knuckles thought about all of this for a moment. Cosmo's words made perfect sense, but he still wasn't sure she could handle the Master Emerald's power, "Tell ya what, I'll think about it while we're searching. Even if you can do what you think you can, it won't matter if we don't have all of the Chaos Emeralds. Sound fair?"

The girl nodded and said, "Alright" just as they reached the next floor. The two split up and wandered the garden in their search. Cosmo would occasionally stop to listen to the various plants. She could feel the life-beat of the planet through them, and in this place the world seemed particularly healthy. That knowledge calmed her nerves while she searched. In spite of how certain she'd sounded when talking to Knuckles, she wasn't actually sure that she could do this. She'd been directed to the engine room that day for a reason, of that she was sure, but she had not been told or shown specifically what that reason was. She'd simply assumed that it had been to learn about the Super Emeralds, but she really didn't know if she would actually be able to do anything about it. All she could do was trust in herself and hope for the best.

* * *

"Y'know, this really isn't fair to the others," Mighty said to the little rabbit behind him.

"What do you mean, Mighty?" Cream asked sweetly while she sifted through the foliage. She really enjoyed talking him, and for some reason her voice always seemed a little sweeter when she did so.

"Well, if you count Cheese we have four people searching, and Tall, Dark and Broody over there can use his Chaos Emerald to teleport, so we'll be done with this waaaay before the others." the armadillo replied. It was true, too. They were already on the third floor of their set, and would be done with that fairly soon.

Suddenly, Shadow warped over to their section of the floor. He was holding a frighteningly familiar two-tailed doll, which he held up as he said, "Okay, I know the kid's got his own space ship, but when did they start making Tails Dolls? And why is it... wiggling?"

Cheese dove into his owner's arms, while Cream stiffened visibly. Shadow was the only one among them who had never seen one of Metal Tails' nasty little spies, and thus had no idea what he was holding. The little doll tried in vane to escape the hedgehog's iron grip, but eventually it gave up. Its crystal started to flash, and it beeped slowly.

Mighty recognized these signs immediately, "Shadow, that's not a doll, it's a bomb!"

Almost before the armadillo had completed his warning, Shadow shouted "Chaos Control!" and warped away. All heads turned as a faint boom echoed over the ocean, and a moment later Shadow had returned.

"Ugly _and_ deadly," Shadow scoffed, "Sounds like something out of a cheap horror flick."

"If the dolls are here, Metal Tails can't be far behind," Mighty said.

"We'd better warn the others," said a still shaken Cream. Shadow called Rouge and Tails over his wrist communicator, and Cream did the same for Knuckles and Cosmo. Mighty, however, seemed to be having some trouble.

"Sonic, are you there?" he asked for the second time, "Sonic?... Amy?... Anyone?..." He was met with no answer. He looked up to the others and said, "Not cool..."

"Looks like Sonic's gotten himself into trouble again," Shadow growled. They called the others to let them know what was happening before heading to the upper floors.

* * *

Sonic's speed had made he and Amy's search a breeze. They had already finished their first four floors, and were currently headed to the very top of the gardens.

Sonic turned to his girlfriend (it was still a little weird for him to think of her that way) and said, "So what should we do after we get done here, Ames?"

"Well," she said, blushing a bit, "There's a really pretty view of the ocean from up here, and I thought we could just sit and enjoy that for a while. Y'know, just the two of us."

"Sounds good to me," the blue hedgehog said as he put an arm around her. When they reached the top, they immediately saw what they'd been looking for. The yellow Chaos Emerald sat in a tall tree in the center of the garden, clearly visible in the branches. The blue blur zipped up the tree and grabbed the gem. He turned around to show off his find to the pink hedgehog, but what he saw instead horrified him. Metal Sonic was there, with his metal claws clutching Amy's throat.

Sonic sprang into action, leaping from the tree and landing in front of the two in a single bound. Green eyes met red. "Let her go, Metal," Sonic said in a deadly quiet voice.

The machine flew into the air with Amy still in tow, her screams choked off by Metal Sonic's cruel hands. He stopped about twenty feet in the air, and began to taunt his counterpart, "Sorry Sonic, but I need test subjects for my new robot army, and you just fell right into my trap!" With that, about thirty robots came down from the sky. They were similar to the ones Sonic had fought before, but with a few slight differences. The most noticeable of these was the shimmering jewel situated in each one's chest.

Metal Sonic mocked him, "You're too slow, Sonic. I took this Emerald from Dr. Eggman quite a while ago, and brought it here when I noticed your little troop coming this way. From there all I had to do was wait," the robot was laughing now, "It was just too easy."

"I said let her go, Metal," The blue hedgehog repeated. He would not repeat himself again.

Metal Sonic laughed again, "Why? She'll have a grand view of your demise from up here! My new robots are powered by synthetic Chaos Emeralds, very similar in design to the one I took from your friend Shadow. You might be able to take on one or two of these by yourself, but I'm fairly certain that the horde I've assembled here will rip you limb from limb!" Now he turned his attention to the girl in his clutches, "I suppose I won't really need you after that, so I'll certainly let you go... though I doubt you'll survive the fall from this height, or the robots that will be waiting below."

That was about all that Sonic could stand. He had been threatened many times before, that he could cope with, but no one, NO ONE, threatened Amy like that in his presence. The girl was terrified, and that just served to make the blue hedgehog angrier. He could feel the fake Emeralds all around him now. Metal Sonic's robots were currently drawing power from them, which would normally have meant that Sonic couldn't use them, but Sonic had something the machines did not. Anger, rage, fear; powerful negative emotions, all of them. Tails had once told him that the fake Emeralds were primarily composed of negative energy, rather than a balance like a real one. This was why they crumbled after a time, and why Sonic had been able to use his dark form with only two fake Emeralds. They fed off of his negativity, and fed him their power in turn. Sonic remembered the damage he had caused with just the two fake Emeralds, so let's see what thirty or so could do!

The raging hedgehog drew deeply from the Emeralds' power, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Metal Sonic, "What?" he hissed, "How can he be... hmph, it doesn't matter. I'll stop you now the same way I did he last time!" At that, a sphere of dark energy radiated out from Metal's body. It hit Sonic just as his quills had darkened to a pitch black. When the energy dissipated, though, what the machine saw was nothing like what he'd expected to see. His robots were on the ground, each and every one of them stripped of their main power source. In the center of them was a figure that Metal Sonic almost didn't recognize. A black hedgehog with cold, pupil-less eyes stood where Sonic had once been, now surrounded by floating gems. Even Amy wasn't sure that this was still her Sonic. Maybe it wasn't. Was this the thing he'd been so afraid of before? Was it even still him?

"No, this isn't right," Metal Sonic said, "That isn't Super Sonic! What is that?" The machine was somewhat relieved when his robots' backup power sources came online and his soldiers started to get back up, however, Dark Super Sonic also noticed this. He spread his hands out to his sides and released a storm of Chaos Spears, which ripped through the soldier robots like they were paper.

With the soldiers destroyed, Sonic turned his attention to their leader, "Now, I'm pretty sure I told you to do something... what was it again?" he tapped his foot and put his hand under his chin as if deep in thought, and then suddenly said "Oh, that's right!" and unleashed another torrent of Chaos Spears at Metal Sonic. The machine dropped Amy and narrowly dodged the onslaught. In literally the blink of an eye, the dark hedgehog caught the girl and set her gently down on the ground. It reminded her of the first time he'd saved her, and in that moment she knew that her Sonic was still in there, somewhere. Right now, though, he was all business. He flew up to Metal Sonic and threw everything he had at the robot. Metal Sonic tried to counterattack, but really it was all he could do to block the punches, kicks, quills, and Chaos attacks with an energy shield that both fighters realized was rapidly weakening. Another burst of Chaos Spears finally broke the shield, taking a large chunk of Metal's Arm with it.

"Any last words?" the dark hedgehog asked as he raised his hand level with Metal Sonic's head.

The robot looked toward the ground and asked, "Don't you have more important things to be taking care of right now?"

Sonic followed the machine's eyes to where Amy Rose was standing. Currently, Metal Knuckles had his large hand around her neck, while Metal Tails held his tail blades above her, ready to strike. Sonic immediately got the message. Metal was threatening her life AGAIN, and that only made him angrier! He turned back to his foe and prepared to blast him to pieces, but a scream from the pink hedgehog below brought him back to reality. At the last possible moment, he aimed his blast at the ground where the two robots were standing. They lept out of the way, leaving the Chaos Spears to hit the ground all around Amy's feet. When Sonic turned back his Metal counterpart was gone, and so were his two henchmen.

Sonic felt his anger leave him as he floated back to the ground, and with it his super form. What had he done? He had almost allowed those THINGS to hurt her in his attempt to destroy the object of his rage. In his dark form, he had completely lost control, and that had put her in danger.

He ran to Amy and put his arms around the still shaking girl, "Amy, I… I'm sorry… I…"

She shook her head and locked her arms tightly around his, "It's alright Sonic. I'm okay. Just… don't ever do that again, alright?"

"But, Metal Sonic… how else am I supposed to beat him?" Sonic asked quietly.

"We'll find another way, Sonic," she said, her confidence building, "'Cause that's just what we do! And if we can't find a way then we'll make one!"

Sonic nodded and smiled to himself. This was why he liked her so much. She always there for him, even when he ran so far away he didn't think anyone could find him. In fact, he didn't just like her…

"I love ya, Ames…" he told the pink girl in his arms.

Amy Rose, who had not shed a single tear through this whole ordeal, now looked like her eyes were ready to burst. She jumped on him and gave him the biggest death-grip hug she'd ever given, "Oh, Sonic what TOOK you so long? I love you too!" And with that she kissed him full on the lips.

Sonic wasn't quite sure whether to try and get her off of him so he could breath again or just relax and enjoy the moment. The choice was made for him when he looked over and noticed his friends near the entrance. They had all arrived by this time, and many of them were staring slack-jawed at the two lovebirds in the middle of what now looked like a robot junkyard. They quickly broke apart with a slightly embarrassed look, until Amy's emotions got the better of her again and she glomped him anew. Sonic just rolled his eyes. He was going to have a LOT of explaining to do…

* * *

_Author's Note: And the dark one finally makes an appearance! And methinks something's up with Cream..._

_On another note, I just re-read my last story again, and I can't BELIEVE how many mistakes I missed. I don't usually spell check the author notes, but the main story should have been much better as far as spelling and punctuation errors go. Hopefully this story isn't as bad for that (though it probably is :p). Oh well, live and learn._


	15. Fortune

**Fortune**

Metal Sonic was NOT pleased. He was pondering recent events as he tested out his newly repaired arm, an arm that his hated nemesis should _never_ have been able to damage in the first place. All of his work, all of his planning, all of his time, all gone to waste in a single battle! He had been completely unable to defend himself against Dark Super Sonic, and the synthetic Chaos Emeralds were less than useless now that he knew his rival could use them to easily attain that form. This complicated his plans for an army of soldier drones, which would be little more than a hindrance to his foes without the fake Emeralds powering them. Worse yet, the botched trap had allowed Sonic to take the yellow Chaos Emerald from him, leaving Metal with only the white one. There was only one Emerald left unaccounted for, but Metal wasn't sure if he cared about that anymore. When the robot finally finished testing the functionality of his new arm, he started going over all of the data he had obtained on the Emeralds and on his infuriating enemies. Perhaps there was something he could use there, something he'd overlooked. He needed to reevaluate his machinations, and find some way to counter the horrible destructive force that was Dark Super Sonic before he could even begin to carry out his plans for the rest of the world.

* * *

The Sea Storm had travelled all over the place on this trip, and Mighty had decided that it was his turn to select a destination. Shadow protested, of course, believing that the search for the Chaos Emeralds should come first. However, the armadillo assured them that there would, in fact, be a Chaos Emerald there. Sure enough, when they got close to the area that Mighty had pointed out, they also noticed a Chaos Emerald moving that same direction. This was a little odd even to Cosmo, who occasionally had a bit of future sight herself.

They reached their destination not a moment too soon. The sky was darkening, and the winds were starting to pick up. The Sea Storm's barometer was dropping steadily, but even without it they could all tell a storm was coming. The ship made it into the harbor just as the first raindrops fell on it.

On the cliffs overlooking the dock was an old castle which, presumably, was their next destination. Though the place was obviously in disuse, it was still structurally sound, and might have been beautiful in better weather. Mighty lead them from the dock to an old path that wound its way to the open castle gates. After crossing a courtyard, they came to the ornate front doors of the place. Mighty was about to knock when the doors swung open, revealing a large foyer. Standing behind the doors was a young, female moth about Mighty's age. She had pale skin and light-pink hair, and wore a long purple dress, and in her hands she held a large transparent sphere.

"Hello, everyone," She said with a small curtsy, "I've been waiting for you. Please, come inside."

They did as she asked, happy to be out of the rain. A streak of lightning flashed outside just as she closed the door, and the thunder boomed soon afterward. It was all Tails could do just to keep from hitting the ceiling. Cosmo put a hand on his shoulder, which calmed him to a degree, but the fox was still shaking pretty badly.

"I'm sorry you had to come here in such horrible weather," the moth said to her guests, "Unfortunately, its like this quite often around here, and it'll likely get worse before it gets better."

Cream the Rabbit was suddenly troubled. There was something that she didn't like about this girl. She had seen her before in one of Mighty's drawings, but the image of the woman had not bothered her then. She had a somewhat shy smile, and seemed very polite and friendly, not to mention very pretty. So why did being in the presence of this seemingly nice person whom she barely knew make her so edgy now?

The moth turned to Mighty and said, "Well? Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"

"Don't you already know who they are, Gypsy?" He asked with a sly grin.

"Well, yes, but they don't know who _I_ am, and I wouldn't mind a more formal introduction," she replied, giving him a little kiss on the cheek. He smiled and blushed, both from the kiss and from the slight embarrassment of forgetting his manners.

Cream's eyes went very wide when she saw that. Well, that was certainly her problem. The way that moth looked at Mighty, the way she spoke to him, the way she'd _kissed_ him; it made the little rabbit's blood boil. She felt several unpleasant thoughts form in her mind, all of which she shoved down immediately. Why was she so upset by this? Her mother would be ashamed if she knew what her little girl was thinking only a moment ago, all because of a little kiss! She looked to her little Chao and noticed that he was looking at her worriedly. She must have been making the most awful face! The bunny smiled up at him reassuringly and decided to put the whole thing in the back of her mind. She was a guest in Gypsy's home, after all, and it wouldn't do at all to be rude to the moth.

Mighty proceeded to introduce the group to his friend, and in turn he introduced them to her. Gypsy, he explained, was a wanderer like himself. Her family owned this castle, but she didn't have the money for servants and the like. She generally used the place only when she needed to rest from her travels or store something she'd found along the way, and tidied up when she thought necessary.

"Its nice to meet ya, Gypsy," Sonic said with a grin, "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have a Chaos Emerald lying around here, would ya?"

"Of course," Gypsy replied, retuning his smile, "I found it a little while ago. I know of your quest, and saw that you'd be coming this way, so I came here as soon as I could."

"You mean you knew we were coming?" Knuckles asked suspiciously. The girl nodded in response.

"Gypsy here is a seer," Mighty explained, "that's how she knows so much about us."

"You mean you can see the future?" Tails asked. He had been skeptical of such things until his visit to Marmolim, where he and Cosmo had met a fortuneteller whose predictions had all eventually come true.

The moth shook her head, "No one can truly see the future, my friend. But when you can see all that has happened in the past, and all that is happening now, you can make a fairly accurate guess at what will happen in time."

"So where _is_ the Emerald, gal?" Rouge asked.

"I've hidden it in the castle, to keep it safe from your enemies. I've been observing them as well," Gypsy explained, holding up her crystal ball. She giggled a bit, and continued, "Perhaps you will find it if you look around my castle for a little while."

"Wait, you mean you're not going to tell us where it is?" Amy asked, eyes flashing dangerously. Gypsy simply smiled again and shook her head. The moth seemed to be enjoying this.

"Why don't we just use the Emerald tracker?" Cosmo suggested.

Tails just shook his head at her. He already had the device out, trying to locate the Emerald to take his mind off the storm, and it was doing the exact same thing it had done on Christmas Island.

"I come from a long line of magic users," Gypsy explained, "and the energies lingering in this castle tend to make compasses and other tracking devices go a little crazy."

Mighty turned to Shadow and Rouge, "I told you I've known a few wizards in my life."

"We don't have time for these games," Shadow grumbled.

"Actually, we've got plenty of time," Tails informed him as the thunder boomed outside. The rain was coming down hard, and the wind was really howling now. The fox shakily continued, "Th-that storm's pretty ugly. I d-don't think we'll be leaving before it's over. Not on my ship anyway."

Shadow suspected that Tails' hesitance had more to do with his fear of lightning than anything else, but he had to admit the boy was right. It wasn't safe out there right now. The Sea Storm could probably handle the rough waters, but someone could fall overboard, or worse one of the Chaos Emeralds could get dropped over the side. Shadow could just imagine that goof-off Sonic falling into the water, panicking, and dropping the emeralds, allowing them to sink to the bottom of the sea and be scattered again by the currents. _That_ would be a disaster.

Gypsy could sense the hedgehog's frustration, "Don't worry," she told him, "If you have not found it by the time the storm has passed, I'll tell you where I've hidden it."

"So where do we start?" Sonic asked.

"Well, Mighty's been here before, so I'll let him pick," Gypsy replied, "And if you have any questions about anything in the castle, don't hesitate to ask!"

* * *

By this point, Metal Sonic had completely discarded the idea of using his soldiers to do anything other than slow his fleshy foes down. No, he needed something more powerful to really put the hurt on. Metal Tails and Metal Knuckles had both been very successful in dealing with the pests, and the only reason his goals had not been achieved in the Stardust Desert was due to the interference of Shadow and Rouge. Part of Sonic's success was that he had surrounded himself with powerful friends. Perhaps it was time Metal Sonic made some of his own, literally. But now what to do about the Emerald problem...

* * *

After searching though the foyer, the dining room, a VERY large ballroom, and several other of the castle's more interesting attractions, the group found themselves wandering the halls in their search for the final Chaos Emerald.

They had been wandering the castle for a couple of hours now, but had not found anything. There were only two places left to search. One was Gypsy's bedroom, and the moth had frankly told them that the Emerald was NOT in there. The other was a tower in the center of the castle; an area that they'd all seen from the outside but had not yet found an entrance to. Even Mighty was stumped. Gypsy explained that the tower had been used by her ancestors for their various magical experiments, and that the only entrance was a secret passage somewhere in the castle. By checking their position in the castle relative to the tower through various windows, Tails had guided them to the hall the group was currently searching, thinking it the most likely place to find the entrance.

"This shouldn't be too hard with a pair of seasoned treasure hunters looking around," Knuckles stated.

Cosmo came up behind Knuckles and asked, "What exactly are we looking for, Knuck-OH!" she tripped over a loose stone in the floor and used her hand to brace herself against the wall to keep herself from falling. The stone her hand had caught went into the wall and a hidden door in the bricks swung open. "Uuuuhhhmmm," was all she could say as she looked into the newly opened passage.

"Off hand," Rouge said, "I think we're looking for something like that."

They made their way up to the tower and began their search. Cream was only partially paying attention to what she was looking for. She was too busy trying to sort out her thoughts. The poor thing was very confused right now, having to deal with feelings she wasn't really accustomed to. Why had she reacted so irritably earlier? It was just a little peck on the cheek. It may not have even meant anything! No, that wasn't right. It wasn't just the kiss, but the way Gypsy and Mighty acted around each other. There was definitely something between them. But why did she care? Mighty was just a good friend, wasn't he? Sure he had saved her life, and sure he was strong and super nice and kinda cute and… wow she was starting to sound like Amy! That thought made her stop dead in her tracks.

Oh no. No, no, no, no. She was NOT becoming like Amy. Was that really what was wrong here? Had she started to think of Mighty that way? To like him the way Amy had liked Sonic for all of those years? The concept of jealousy was almost completely foreign to the little rabbit. She didn't even know if her mother would let her have a boyfriend yet, let alone one that was so much older than her! And what did he think of her? Clearly he liked Gypsy, but had he even noticed the little signs that Cream had only now recognized? How she blushed when he got close to her, how she paid extra special attention whenever he spoke to her? Probably not. She wanted very much just to sit down and cry right now.

Gypsy looked at Cream and noticed that she seemed a bit downcast. She briefly wondered if she'd made this too hard. Mighty knew that she was fond of riddles and trick questions, and she had hoped that he would have figured out the answer to this one by now. "I'll give you all a hint," she finally said, "You're very close to it, and have been for some time now, if only you look in the right place."

An idea occurred to Cream just then. Maybe it was more than just jealosy that had made her suspicious of the moth. The bunny walked over to her and said, "Miss Gypsy, you said that you hid the Emerald in the castle somewhere, right?"

"That's right Cream," the moth said.

"And you've been in the castle, and close to us ever since we first got here, right?" She'd stuck particularly close to Mighty, though Cream left that part out.

Gypsy smiled now, as it was clear that someone had finally figured it out. "Right again!" she replied.

The realization dawned fully on the little rabbit, "And the only place we haven't looked for the Emerald is on you!"

"Correct!" the moth girl laughed happily. It was quite ironic that the youngest and most innocent of them was also the first to see though her ruse, "And since you figured it out, you get the prize!" She pulled the purple Emerald from a hidden pocket in her dress and handed it to the little rabbit.

"Good going, Cream!" Mighty said as he patted her on the shoulder. It was a friendly gesture, nothing more. That was probably all it would ever be, she realized.

"You mean you've had it on you the whole time?" Knuckles fumed.

"Yes, Knuckles," the moth replied, "I was trying to get you all to think outside of the box a bit, and it appears that little Cream is the best at it," she smiled mischievously, "Perhaps you should let her lead you for a while. I believe you'll need that kind of thinking in the days ahead."

Cream blushed a bit at the complement. A leader? She was just happy to have been useful. She wanted nothing more than to help her friends, the people who were all so important to her. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cosmo, and even Rouge and Shadow. And… him. Mighty was a friend, too. And they were all having a marvelous adventure together. And _that_, she decided, was exactly how things should be for now. The little girl would have plenty of time to worry about boyfriends later.

She also decided that she'd have to thank Gypsy for helping her remember that with her little game. It was only polite, after all.

* * *

Metal Sonic's new creations were coming along quite nicely. His new robots were in production, and the first one was quite promising. Metal would have to check on its progress later. Right now he was too busy studying the results of a project that he hoped would kill two birds with one stone. In his hand he held a black emerald. This gem was far and away an improvement over the old fake Chaos Emeralds. Its power balance was much closer to that of a real Emerald, and also had the self-charging properties that gave the real Emeralds limitless energy. So long as the energy drain was not too large, this new emerald could be used endlessly, and even if it were drained it would simply become powerless until it recharged itself, unlike the old fakes which would crumble to dust. Even better, Metal had altered its structure to be more receptive to a machine interface, which would allow him to draw more power from it that he would even be able to get from the real thing! With this new power, he would easily surpass Dark Super Sonic and destroy that hedgehog once and for all!

* * *

_Author's Note: Now all of the Emeralds have been found, and Sonic and co seem to be holding most of the cards. Metal's not ready to give up just yet, though. What nasty surprises does he have in store?_

_On a happier note, hope everyone had a happy holiday!_


	16. City in the Sky

**

* * *

**

City in the Sky

The time had finally come. They had collected all but one Chaos Emerald, and that one was in Metal Sonic's hands. Now they were actively seeking out the Metal Sky, and it wasn't all that hard to find.

Tails was using the Emerald tracker on the Sea Storm to locate the white Emerald, and thus the floating fortress. What he found, however, surprised him.

"This can't be right," the fox said to no one in particular, "I'm picking up two Chaos Emeralds instead of one!"

"I thought you made it so that thing wouldn't track fake Emeralds," Amy said.

Tails shook his head, "It shouldn't be… Hold on a second." He fiddled with the settings on his computer for a moment, trying to isolate the two signals. With that accomplished, he analyzed the energy readings carefully. "This is weird," he concluded.

"What's wrong?" Shadow asked.

"One of them is definitely a fake, but its much closer to a real Emerald than any of the others we've seen so far," Tails explained.

"Can you fix it so that we only track the real one?" Amy asked.

Tails shook his head again, "No need. Both signals are coming from the same place. This actually makes it easier to locate the Metal Sky. I'm just worried about this new signal, that's all."

They set a course to follow the new signal, straight into what they hoped would be the location of the final battle with Metal Sonic.

* * *

As guardian of the Master Emerald, Knuckles was VERY strict about its application. Cosmo was just now finding this out as he went over all of the various guidelines and hazards of the powerful gem's use. He had grudgingly agreed to try out her idea, deciding that maybe trying something "outside the box", as Gypsy had put it, wouldn't be such a bad idea in this case. He was, however, going to do everything in his power to make certain that she didn't do anything that would make him regret this decision later on. Unfortunately, his long speech and the Seedrian's nodding head did little to ease his fears.

"Are you sure you want to try this?" he asked one last time.

"Yes, I'm sure," Cosmo said, trying to sound confident.

The echidna sighed and turned to his precious treasure. He slowly raised his hands into the air and started chanting, "The servers are the seven chaos. Chaos is power, power is enriched by heart. The controller is the one that unifies the chaos…"

Cosmo was in awe. She had never actually seen Knuckles perform this ritual before, having always been on the Blue Typhoon's deck or elsewhere when it happened. Now it was right in front of her, glowing brightly. She could literally feel the energy radiating from it.

Her reverence was interrupted by Knuckles' oddly calm voice, "If you're going to try it, now would be a good time." It was the first time she had ever heard him sound so… serene. She didn't want to ruin the moment, so she did as he advised. Cosmo gracefully leapt up onto the large jewel.

She allowed the power to flow into her through her feet, like nutrients flowing into the roots of a tree. Well, she had gotten this far… now what? She didn't want to draw too much energy, remembering her failed attempt to use the Planet Egg and Knuckles' dire warnings. She thought once again of how much it felt like the energy of a Planet Egg. Now that she truly felt it, though, she could see the differences much more clearly. Rather than being tethered to a particular planet, this gem seemed to be connected to the very fabric of the universe. Most notably, she could feel its connection to seven distinct points, which, she realized, must be the Chaos Emeralds. She pulled out the light blue Emerald that she had borrowed for the occasion and concentrated on it. With the Master Emerald's energy flowing though her, she could easily see (or rather, feel) its connection to the smaller gem in her hands. She looked carefully at the Chaos Emerald, now able to read its energies due to the larger gem's influence. She could see the positive and negative energies fighting with one another, cancelling each other out. The two energies seemed so unstable, as if the whole thing would burst at any moment. If she could just find some way to calm them…

And then, without really realizing what she was doing, she focused the Master Emerald's energy into the smaller gem and forced the two energies to separate. The Chaos Emerald's glow began to dim, and Cosmo hastily pulled the energy block out to allow the battle to renew. But she noted that for the small amount of time the block was in place, the two sides of the emerald had been calm.

The seedrian started placing small amounts of energy in specific spots to slow the tide of positive and negative energy rather than stop it altogether. She wasn't quite sure _how_ she knew where it needed to go, but she knew. It was almost like she was being guided by something.

Suddenly, just like fitting a key into a lock, something seemed to click, and the Chaos Emerald started to grow. It grew to about twice its regular size, and now seemed to be almost overflowing with an energy that was much less violent than before.

"Cosmo, it worked! How did you do it?" Knuckles shouted happily. Unfortunately, this unexpected noise broke the Seedrian's concentration, and in a flash the Super Emerald returned to its normal form. "What happened?" asked the confused echidna.

"I think it only works while I'm concentrating," she replied, looking curiously at the small gem.

"But it _did_ work," Knuckles stated, "I could feel it! Think you could do that with all seven Emeralds?"

Cosmo looked a bit flustered, "I-I'm not sure. It took quite a lot of concentration just to use the one!"

"Could be that you just need practice," the echidna told her, "Come on, try it again."

She nodded her head and once again concentrated on the Chaos Emerald, determined to do what she could to help her friends.

* * *

It wasn't long before they reached Metal Sonic's large floating ship. It hung in the air like some great city in the sky, unmoving, as if it was waiting for them.

"So how do we get up there?" Mighty asked.

"We could use the Mecha Tornado," Tails suggested, "But that would only allow a few of us to go up there."

"Why don't we just use chaos control to warp in?" Sonic suggested.

"It helps to know approximately _where_ you're warping to," Shadow told him, "Unless you _want_ to accidentally warp into a turbine."

"Hmmm, guess that wont work then," Sonic mused.

Shadow just shook his head and grumbled "Try thinking before you talk."

An alarm suddenly went off, and Tails turned to his monitor to see what the matter was. "It looks like another ship is approaching from the south, coming in fast!" he informed them.

They all went out to the deck to see one of Eggman's smaller flying ships pull up next to them. Bokkun, who was standing the bridge of the ship, waved to them and said, "Need a lift, losers?"

The group boarded the Egg ship quickly, except for Cosmo, who had agreed to stay behind and make sure no one hijacked the Sea Storm or its power source. She wanted to study the gem for a while more anyway, and see if she could perfect the technique she'd most recently acquired.

Once aboard, Sonic was the first to speak, "What's up, Egghead?"

"Its awfully nice of you to give us a hand like this," Cream added.

"Save it, kid," Eggman told her, "I'm just here to even things up, that's all."

The ship flew up to the Metal Sky with little resistance. Occasionally a few of Metal Sonic's robots would fly down to attack, but they were no match for Eggman's ship, and seemed more like they were just there for show. In spite of having several cannons of its own, the Metal Sky did not attack.

"This is a trap, you know that, right?" Shadow stated as he turned to Sonic.

"That's never stopped us before," Sonic replied with a confident smile. He wished he felt as confident as he looked, but now was not the time for second thoughts.

The ship flew up next to the Metal Sky and blasted open the doors of a nearby hangar with a well-placed missile. Several robots that had been posted to guard that area rushed to the newly created hole, only to be blasted by Eggman's lasers.

"Alright!" Eggman stated as he pulled into the hangar, "Everybody out!" When they had all complied with his request, the doctor ordered his robots to pilot the ship out and away from the fortress.

Sonic turned to his old enemy, "Aren't you gonna stay and help us?"

"I've done enough already, hedgehog!" Eggman replied, "Now it's time to test Metal's mettle."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Amy asked irritably.

"Its something Metal Sonic said to me when he took the yellow Emerald from my hands." Eggman said, "He said that he wasn't going to kill me because he wanted me to see how a real evil genius does things. I have to say, as his creator, that he's come a long way. I'm almost proud!" He paused for a moment, and then smiled maniacally, "But now we'll see if the prodigal son can truly surpass his father! Go! Find Metal Sonic, and see if he can accomplish the task that I have failed at so many times!"

Sonic smiled and gave Eggman a cocky thumbs up as he said, "Hate to disappoint you, doc, but Metal's goin' down!" With that, he turned and ran deeper into the fortress, with his friends following behind him.

* * *

The group of heroes ran through a very long, straight hallway. There were several doors leading to other areas of the fortress, but Tails insisted that his tracking device pointed straight ahead. Along the way they were faced with several more of Metal Sonic's soldier robots, as well as a few spike and laser traps. All of these were dispatched with relative ease.

At the end of the hallway the group came to a large area that appeared to be a cross between a factory and a laboratory of some kind. Eight machines lined the walls, each of which appeared to be creating a robot. The robots varied in size from being as tall as an average Mobian to ten times that, but what caught the group's attention was not the machines' size, but their appearance. Each one looked like a mechanical version of one of them! There was a Metal Rouge, Metal Shadow, Metal Mighty, Metal Cosmo, and even a Metal Cream complete with a gargantuan Metal Cheese! Only the large capsule on the far right was empty. Each of the robots appeared to be at differing points of the assembly process, with Metal Shadow appearing to be the most complete.

"Marvelous, aren't they?" said a voice from above. They all looked up to see Metal Sonic floating above their heads. Two gems floated around him, one white and the other black as night. It wasn't too hard to tell which Emerald was the fake.

"Once I'm done with you fools, I'll use the Chaos Emeralds to power your replacements," the robot said, gesturing toward the machines below, "and with our combined might we will remake this world in our image!" His red eyes turned toward a large doorway, "Behold, the first of my newest creations, the newest soldier of the Metal Empire!"

At that moment, the very large form of a machine that was obviously supposed to be Metal Eggman lumbered into the room, flanked by Metal Tails and Metal Knuckles. It was easily twenty feet tall, with large, spiked pile drivers where its hands should have been. Its face was reminiscent of Eggman's, as was the robot's color scheme.

"Since my creator always seems to be trying to use the Emeralds to power some doomsday device or another, I think it's only appropriate that his metal counterpart be the first to use this," Metal Sonic said as he flew down and placed the Emerald in a compartment in Metal Eggman's chest. He then grabbed the synthetic Emerald as he turned back to the others, "I myself will be using this little work of art."

Sonic turned to his mechanical double, "Its time to finish this, Metal."

"Indeed," the machine replied as he placed the black jewel in his own chest.

And thus the battle began. Tails and Knuckles each faced their own counterparts, with Cream joining Tails and Mighty joining Knuckles in their respective fights. This left Shadow, Amy, and Rouge to deal with Metal Eggman while Sonic faced his opponent alone.

_

* * *

_

_Author's Note: Sorry for the rushed appearance earlier. Holidays are hecktic around here._


	17. Final Fall

**

* * *

**

**Final Fall**

Sonic and Metal Sonic clashed just as they had after Metal was reawakened. They sped around the room, blocking and punching at super sonic speeds. There was one notable difference this time, though. While the black emerald had raised the power level of Metal's attacks, it had not given him any new ones. Thus, Sonic had seen all of these moves before, and was a bit better prepared to counter them than he had been last time. Metal's shield was still formidable, though, and would be tough to break through. If Sonic was ever going to win this, he needed to find a way around that little detail.

They continued to trade blows, sometimes standing still, others on the run. It seemed to Metal that his loathsome copy was beginning to tire, so he stepped up his attacks. Sonic tried to dodge, but a well-placed punch took Sonic off guard and sent him to the floor. The machine floated down after him, wanting nothing so much as to end the wretched hedgehog's existence, just as he had almost done during their first encounter.

Metal Sonic took his scythe in both hands and held it above his foe's head like an executioner's axe, ready to swing down on his neck. Unfortunately for him, this left him with no hands to form a shield when Sonic suddenly opened his eyes and curled into a quick spin dash. The blue hedgehog slammed into his robotic double with as much force as he could muster, sending the surprised machine flying back.

Metal righted himself in mid-air and looked back at his smirking opponent. "Wanna go again?" Sonic asked. It was fairly obvious that Sonic's supposed fatigue had all been an act. Metal nodded and the two flew at each other with renewed vigor.

* * *

Knuckles once again found himself hammering against his metal double, only this time he had a bit of an edge. Both the fake echidna and the real one jumped to avoid the large, heavy red ball that was quickly rolling toward them. Mighty had curled into a ball and was constantly rolling in and out of the area in an attempt to trip up the robot. Metal Knuckles was at his best in direct combat, so dodging these hit and run attacks was becoming increasingly difficult, not to mention irritating. Knuckles, on the other hand, had no qualms about this tactic, since Mighty was taking care to stay in the robot's path and out of his.

The two fighters jumped again as Mighty once again rolled by, but this time, Metal Knuckles did something a bit unexpected. In one quick motion he reached down and caught Mighty in one of his enormous hands and threw the armored ball directly into Knuckles. The two landed in a heap, but got up quickly.

"Well THAT didn't work," Mighty said as he stood up.

Knuckles just growled, "Hmph, two can play at this game!"

Mighty immediately got the hint and curled into a ball again. Knuckles lifted the armadillo and hurled him at the robot. Metal Knuckles immediately balled up his fist and slammed the ball back toward his opponent. Knuckles easily caught the ball and spun around to gain momentum before throwing it back.

"I really hope they get tired of this soon," Mighty said to himself as he was batted back and forth, "This is giving me a killer migraine!"

* * *

The enormous Emerald-powered Metal Eggman pounded his spiked 'hand' into the ground where Shadow the Hedgehog had been only moments before. Being the ultimate life form, Shadow's quick reflexes were more than a match for most of the giant machine's lumbering attacks. Unfortunately, missiles were not so easy to dodge, and Metal Eggman had been sending out wave after wave of the things since the beginning of the battle.

"Where does he _keep_ all those rockets, anyway?" Rouge asked herself as she dodged another volley. She weaved gracefully and easily through the missile fire, however as she was doing so she failed to notice one of the robots pile driver fists flying at her. Fortunately she was only hit by the flat portion of Metal Eggman's hand, _UN_fortunatly that hit sent her flying to the ground. She barely had enough time to shake off the damage and look up at the missile that was now heading straight for her.

The projectile was only a few feet from the helpless bat when it was struck in the side by a very large hammer. The force of the blow was enough to send the missile spinning out of control.

Rouge looked up to see that her rescuer was Amy Rose, of all people.

"Never thought I'd say it," Rouge said to the pink hedgehog, "but nice going, gal!"

"Thank you!" Amy replied as she smashed another incoming missile away. This one she hit from the bottom, and it flipped around and eventually headed back at Metal Eggman, hitting him square in the chest. The blast was enough to blow a fair sized hole in the machine's chest, exposing the cavity that held the white Chaos Emerald.

Shadow saw an opportunity and decided to take it before it was too late. He quickly jumped up on top of the robot's head and then hopped down into the hole made by the blast. Before Metal Eggman could do anything to stop him, Shadow grabbed the white Emerald and shouted "Chaos Blast!" A burst of energy radiated from the black hedgehog and ripped through Metal Eggman. When the light cleared, Shadow was standing in the middle of a pile of scrap metal with the white Emerald in hand.

"One down," Shadow muttered, smiling viciously.

"Now that that's taken care of, I'm gonna go help my Sonic!" Amy yelled as she rushed toward the blue hedgehog.

"I'll take fly-boy over there," Rouge said, gesturing to Metal Tails.

"I guess that leaves me with Metal Knuckles," Shadow concluded. He sped toward the red machine in hopes of landing a surprise attack while it was still occupied playing dodge ball with Mighty and Knuckles.

Shadow's fist landed in the back of Metal Knuckles' head just in time for the Mighty ball to slam into the distracted machine's face. The double impact made a nasty crunching sound that Shadow found most… satisfying.

* * *

Tails and Cream were locked in an airborne battle that seemed to be getting nowhere. Tails and Metal Tails were dodging and weaving around, each trying to out-fly or out-smart the other. Cream and Cheese, meanwhile, were dodging the hoard of Tails Dolls that were constantly attempting to ram them. Being a bit more cautious than Metal Eggman, Metal Tails didn't dare set any of them off in here, but that didn't stop them from attacking ferociously to defend their master. Cream managed to take out a few of them by throwing Cheese, but for each one she destroyed another appeared to take its place!

For a moment, Tails seemed to have the upper hand on his metal copy. The machine was just below him, and seemed to be unsure of where the real fox had gotten to. Tails took this opportunity to attack. He spun his tails as fast as he could and went into a downward kick that would put Metal Tails into the ground. A large dent appeared in the floor where the fox landed, but Metal Tails was not there. He had anticipated the attack and was now hovering above the real Tails, ready to use the fox's own move against him.

A swift and surprising kick to the head from Rouge insured that attack never came. Metal Tails shook himself and backed off a ways to study his new opponent.

The bat turned to Tails, "You go take care of Cream, guy. I'll hand metal-head here." Tails nodded and flew off to aid Cream, who was beginning to be overwhelmed by the ever-growing number of Tails Dolls floating around.

Rouge turned back to the machine and smiled in her usual way, "Tails always had a pretty hard time beating me in a fight when we were training. Think you can do better?"

The machine's answer was to rush at her with its tails spinning wildly, and thus the aerial battle continued.

* * *

Metal Sonic simply couldn't understand how his mechanical bretheren could be losing. Metal Eggman had fallen, which meant that his enemies had all seven of the Emeralds, and Sonic could become Dark Super Sonic at any time. It also meant that in addition to Sonic, he now also had Amy to deal with. After what he had done to her during their last encounter, the pink hedgehog was definitely looking for some payback.

But Metal still had his Black Emerald, he could still win. It all made sense to him now. Like his creator, he had relied far too much on other machines to do his dirty work for him. If he wanted something done right, he'd have to do it himself!

"You haven't won yet!" Metal hissed. He used the power of the synthetic emerald to bring the wreckage of Metal Eggman to him, bending and shaping the various parts as he required. It wasn't enough, though; he needed more. Metal reached out to the machinery around him, dragging it into his rapidly growing form. Finally, the Metal Sky itself started to bend to his will as pieces of the floor and wall flew toward him.

All around them the heroes saw the ship being slowly torn apart and absorbed into the storm of metal and machinery that Metal Sonic had created around himself. First the room around them, and then other parts of the once great ship. Slowly the pile of scrap started to take shape as wires and bolts attached themselves to the ever-growing shape. Alarms went off all over the ship as several of its vital parts were ripped from the floating fortress.

Suddenly Metal Sonic began to float upwards… no that wasn't right. He wasn't moving up, they were going down! As the ship lost more and more vital components, it started falling, crashing, and taking its passengers with it! There was very little Sonic and the others could do but hold on for dear life and watch as the insane mass of machinery started to take form. Here a claw, there a wing, spines and mechanical tendrils forming all over the thing.

It seemed like an eternity, but it really only took about a minute for the remains of the Metal Sky to finally hit the water with a mighty splash. Bruised and groggy, the group slowly stood and looked around to make sure the others were alright. Their worry was interrupted by a roaring mechanical laughter from above. They all looked up toward the frightening sound to see an even more frightening figure. Above them was a mechanical beast that looked something like a cross between a hedgehog and a dragon. It had enormous spines growing from its back, and a large cannon mounted on one of its arms. Two great wings sprouted where its legs should have been, and a long prehensile tail waved behind it. The strangest part, though, was its eyes. Instead of being situated side-by-side, they were placed vertically, one on top of the other.

"Metal?" Sonic breathed.

"**Metal Sonic is no more…**" the beast shouted,"**I AM THE METAL OVERLORD!**"

**

* * *

**

_Author's Note: MORTAL COMBAT!!! Ummm, yeah, anyways... Battle scenes aren't usually my forte, so hopefully this chapter (pretty much one big battle) turned out ok. See ya next time._


	18. Metal Madness

**Metal Madness**

Sonic stared at the massive thing flying above him with one thought in his mind: How on Mobius am I going to do this? There was no doubt in his mind that he was, in fact, going to fight it. If he could fly he'd be up there quick as a flash. Maybe if he had all of the Chaos Emeralds…

Sonic turned to his adopted brother, "Hey Tails?"

"I'm already working on it, Sonic," came his reply. The fox was rapidly pushing buttons on his wrist communicator, "Cosmo, can ya hear me?"

"Yes Tails, I'm here. Are you alright?" Asked the worried seedrian through her own communicator.

"We're okay for now, but we need you to get the Sea Storm over here, quick!" he told her.

"Tails, I don't know how to drive this ship!"

"Don't worry, Cosmo," Tails assured her, "I'll walk you through it. Just go to the controls and I'll give you instructions on how to set the auto-pilot." He proceeded to do just that, and it wasn't long before the ship pulled up next to them. They all boarded from the now sinking remains of the Metal Sky, and watched as the great beast that was once Metal Sonic flew over them. He was heading toward the nearest shore he could find, likely intent on causing trouble. Tails ran to the controls and programmed the ship to follow the Metal Overlord as quickly as it could, and the chase was on.

Mighty was the first to ask the question that was on everyone's minds, "Anybody got any bright ideas?"

"I might," Knuckles told them. Everyone looked at him a bit surprised, but he ignored it and turned to Sonic, "Do you remember when we first met and you turned into Hyper Sonic?"

"You bet, buddy!" Sonic answered, shrugging his shoulders, "But we never really figured out how ta make it work again."

"Cosmo can do it," Knuckles stated. He turned to her, "We have all seven of the Emeralds now. Think you can handle it?"

"Maybe," Cosmo replied, trying to sound more sure than she was, "But trying to power up all seven at once will take a lot of time and concentration."

"I'll buy you all the time you need," Shadow said as he came up from behind the others, "I've been wanting to take a crack at that faker, anyways."

"You're not going without me, guy," Rouge told him, "We make too good of a team for me to bail now."

Shadow simply nodded and took out his last fake Emerald. The bat grabbed his shoulder as he shouted "Chaos Control!" and the two were gone in a flash.

Knuckles felt a slight twinge of jealously at the way Rouge had so quickly joined up with Shadow, but he knew there wasn't time for that now. What mattered most was, "Can we get the Master Emerald up here?"

"Sure thing," Tails said. He pushed a few buttons and a hatch in the deck opened up. From it the Master Emerald rose up, still attached to the ship's power core. "I installed that little feature after Metal Sonic blew a hole in the engine room's ceiling. It actually makes it a lot easier for me to fix the hydraulic stabilizers around the-"

"No offense, Tails, but we really don't have time for that now!" Amy told him.

"Oh, right! Sorry…" the embarrassed fox replied.

Knuckles raised his arms to begin chanting, attempting to coax as much energy as he could from the Master Emerald without drawing any away from the ship. When the Emerald started to glow brightly, Cosmo jumped up on top of it and allowed the power to flow though her. It was all up to her, now.

* * *

Shadow and Rouge teleported in just above the beast's head. Shadow curled up before he had even landed and immediately attempted to spin dash though Metal's armor. Rouge, meanwhile, was flying around looking for some sort of weakness.

Metal Overlord noticed both of these things, but took them as little more than nuisances. They were nothing more than annoying flies to him now, insects that had been sent to distract him from the real attack that would soon be coming. Metal knew that Sonic would attempt to power up into one of his super forms to take him on, and the great machine relished the challenge. He would not attempt to stop the transformation this time. In his new form, and powered by the black emerald, Metal Sonic… no, Metal Overlord, was certain that he would prove his superiority over that wretched hedgehog once and for all! Then he could finally… OUCH!

The great dragon looked down and noticed that Rouge had just drill kicked into one of the crystals in his left wing. She had no chance of actually damaging him, but these little bee stings and mosquito bites that the two were inflicting were starting to aggravate him. Perhaps it was time he dealt with the foolish little fleshlings.

Rouge flew out of the way just in time to avoid Metal's huge spiked tail lashing out at her. Shadow, meanwhile, was still busily trying to damage the beast's head. He pounded on its snout, its eyes, even its jaw to try and find anything that would damage it. Unfortunately, his attacks seemed to be doing no good. The few dents that he'd managed to put in the Overlord's armor were small, and seemed to repair themselves almost as quickly as he inflicted them. Shadow was so intent on trying to find a way to truly hurt the machine that he was actually taken by surprise when the thing suddenly jerked its head, sending him into the air. Then, with surprising speed, Metal raised his claw and swatted the black hedgehog back down toward the Sea Storm.

"Shadow!" Rouge cried as she dove to catch him. She managed to do so, but the force of his flight sent her hurtling toward the ship with him. The bat spread her wings in an attempt to slow them down, as she knew there was little else she could do but try to lessen the impact. This action likely saved her life (and saved Shadow from another bout of amnesia), but it still didn't stop them from hitting the deck of the Sea Storm HARD. Rouge saw several people run over to help them as she struggled to remain conscious. She could only hope that she and Shadow had bought the others enough time. Otherwise, she might never wake up again.

* * *

Cosmo was having a slightly difficult time dealing out the energies needed to each of the seven Emeralds. Trying to change all of them at once had been too much for her, so now she was attempting to power them one at a time. Creating one Super Emerald was challenging, and two was very difficult. Three was extremely troublesome, and any more than that seemed outright impossible! Every time she tried to do another one she lost her concentration on one of the others and it reverted back to normal. Unfortunately, three seemed to be her limit.

She needed some help, but wasn't sure where to get it. The voice that sometimes guided her seemed to have vanished, leaving the seedrian to do this alone. She tried to think for a moment of what she might be able to do to give herself the needed boost. She thought of all of her friends; of Tails and Cream and Amy and Knuckles and Sonic; of how much they all needed her right now, but this only distracted her. But… Sonic… that gave her an idea!

Sonic had once explained his super transformation to her. He'd said that all of his senses were enhanced to crystal clarity, how everything seemed sharper, more focused, and focus was what she needed now. She dropped her concentration on the three Emeralds she'd been focused on and allowed them to revert to normal. She could hear her friends asking her what was wrong, but she tuned them out, focusing instead on the Chaos Emeralds themselves. She attempted to draw their positive energies into herself, hoping that Metal Overlord would be too distracted to notice her attempt. Her current connection to the Master Emerald made the process fairly easy, and in just moments she felt herself transform. A green aura surrounded her as her power level grew, and though she did not seem to physically age the buds on her head opened and flowered beautifully. Long roots grew from her feet that covered the surface of the Master Emerald, allowing her to draw eve more of its power.

And then, just like that, she did it. All on her own, and without anyone's help. She'd never felt so good about herself n all her life! Transforming the Chaos Emeralds seemed so simple now, and she fed them just as they were feeding her. When she her now glowing blue eyes she saw her friends all staring in wonder at her and the seven large gems that now surrounded her.

"Beautiful..." Tails muttered, and Cosmo blushed. He was staring right at her, and probably didn't think she could hear him, but right now she could probably have heard a pin drop. She needed to focus on what was important, though.

"I believe you know what to, Sonic," She told the hedgehog with a smile.

"I sure do, Cosmo!" Sonic told her, showing a grin of his own. He was just about to start the transformation when something crashed into the deck behind everyone. Or rather, two somethings. The Metal Overlord had apparently grown tired of toying with the two decoys and had decided to discard them. Amy, Cream and Mighty all rushed over to make sure Shadow and Rouge were alright.

"Looks like Cosmo came through just in time," Tails said.

"Better hurry, Sonic," Knuckles told him. Sonic nodded and turned to the Super Emeralds. It had been some time since he'd used them in this form, but it felt just like greeting an old friend. He reached out to them, feeling their energy. He attempted to draw in both the positive and negative energies of the Emeralds, and was happy to find that he had no trouble doing so. In moments, the being known as Hyper Sonic was standing before them. He had a glow about him that slowly transitioned between the colors of the seven Emeralds, and glowed so brightly that his features became indistinct. He smiled as he opened his red eyes and gave everyone a quick thumbs up before flying off toward the metal beast.

* * *

Dr. Eggman and his robots were all carefully watching the events that were unfolding with great interest. After Shadow and Rouge had been thrown off of the great machine, there was a flash of light, and a brightly glowing character flew up toward the beast. The Metal Overlord raised its huge cannon arm and smiled with a hideous grin.

"That won't work, Metal," Eggman said to himself. Sure enough, Metal's smile turned into a growl as the hedgehog emerged from the blast completely unharmed.

"NO WAY!" Bokkun shouted.

"I'm impressed," Bocoe said, "I didn't think even Super Sonic could withstand a blast like that."

"That isn't Super Sonic." Eggman informed them, "It's Hyper Sonic."

"Hyper Sonic?" the three robots asked.

"Yes. I dealt with him once before you three were built," the doctor explained, "He is the result of merging the positive and negative energies of the Chaos Emeralds."

"Why haven't we seen this before, Doctor?" Decoe asked.

"For quite a while, the method used in that particular transformation was unknown. It just sort of happened, and even poor Knuckles couldn't figure out why." Eggman smiled now, "Which in part proves my theory about Cosmo. You see, Knuckles has the ability to channel the energies of the Master Emerald, but when he does it, it's like opening up a floodgate. He can choose how much energy comes out, but he can't really control it much beyond that. That's where Cosmo comes in."

"What's so special about her?" Bokkun asked.

"You'll recall that I tried to steal the plant that she was eventually reborn from to study it. This is because her race has shown remarkable energy manipulation abilities. This was manifested in the Metarex leaders' forced evolution, as well as Cosmo's own demonstration when she used her tree form to hinder the enormous energies of the anomaly that Dark Oak had created. She is able to control the energies of the Master Emerald much more intricately and efficiently than Knuckles can. He controls the amount of the flow, and she guides it to where it is needed. Together they can do much more with the Emerald's power than either of them can alone." The mad doctor's smile widened insanely, "Just imagine what she could do if she were hooked to the power supply of one of my robots! The thing would be unstoppable!"

Bocoe chimed in, "As I recall, the last time you tried something like that Tails came and nearly destroyed your base."

"Yeah," Bokkun whined, "It took us WEEKS to clean that up!"

"Hmph!" Eggman said, his smile becoming a sour look, "Don't remind me!"

* * *

Hyper Sonic and Metal Overlord hovered in the air, staring one another down. Finally, Metal broke the silence, "I see you have discovered yet another form."

Sonic nodded at him, "You got it, Metal. And its waaaaay too late to try and use that dark sphere attack of yours."

The machine smiled evilly at his miniscule opponent. It was funny, he'd never been able to smile before, and now he was becoming quite fond of the action. "No matter. It does not matter what form you assume! I am no longer simply your copy, Sonic! I am now my own being with my own body. And with this powerful form I will destroy you no matter what you become!"

"Oh yeah?" Sonic said with a cocky grin, "And whadaya think you're gonna do after that?"

"Maybe I'll conquer the world in the name of the Metal Empire," the beast growled, "or maybe I'll simply destroy it and move on to another world. Either way, you won't have to worry about it anymore."

The truth was Metal really didn't know what he'd do afterwards. His entire existence had been based around destroying that infernal hedgehog. Once that was accomplished he'd always assumed that his creator would give him some new assignment to accomplish. However, the Metal Overlord no longer adhered to the will of his creator, so now he supposed that he'd just have to play it by ear. It seemed that, even now, Metal was far more like Sonic than he would ever admit.

Now, however, was the beginning of their final battle. The two titans clashed, and a war of light and fire erupted in the sky.

* * *

_Author's Note: Wow, we're getting to the end of what has become a much longer ride than I expected. Tune in next time to see this story's fiery conclusion!_


	19. Purpose

**Purpose**

The Metal Overlord had quickly discovered that his foe was far too speedy to be hit by most of his melee attacks. As such, he had switched to projectile weapons such as missiles, lasers, and occasionally his beam breath and arm cannon. These were at least able to hit the hyper hedgehog occasionally, though it changed very little.

The battle was essentially at a standstill. None of Metal Overlord's attacks seemed to be able to harm Hyper Sonic, and while the hedgehog found that he was able to do some decent damage by ramming into his giant adversary it was never long before that damage was repaired. Furthermore, pounding on one spot consistently only made it easier for Metal to hit him, draining his precious reserves of stamina.

And that was really what this all about. Sonic _needed_ to find a way to take this guy down before he ran out of energy. For Metal Overlord, this was all just a waiting game. He knew it would take a while, but eventually the time and hits would take their toll and Sonic would run out of reserves and fall crashing into the ocean… if the machine let him get that far. For now the mechanical beast was just trying to amuse itself by finding new methods of tiring his adversary out, and a particularly devious one had just come to mind.

Metal let out another barrage of missiles, but instead of aiming them at Sonic he sent them flying directly toward the Sea Storm. Sonic saw this and quickly sped after the rockets, knocking out as many as he possibly could. Unfortunately, he managed to take out all but one, and that was headed directly toward the Master Emerald.

"Watch out, guys!" he called to them as he chased the last missile. He knew that he would never be able to make it from that distance, but he still had to try. He just hoped that the others would be able to think of something before it was too late.

* * *

Cosmo tried desperately to remain calm and focused as the missiles barreled toward her. She could have created a shield or something, but maintaining the Super Emeralds was her primary focus, and she didn't think she could maintain a strong enough shield and the Emeralds at the same time. So she did the only thing she could think of: She reached out with the Emeralds' power to the two people who were physically closest to her at the moment.

When the rocket was only a few yards from where Cosmo stood, Tails flew in and grabbed it just above the nose, attempting to hold it in place without detonating it. Only a moment later, a glowing red Knuckles grabbed the thing by one of its tail fins and spun it around.

"Back you go!" Knuckles yelled as he let the missile fly back toward its origin. The large robot merely swatted the thing away, but he still looked plenty angry at this new turn of events. Now there were three of them!

Super Tails and Super Knuckles turned to look at Cosmo, giving her her first good look at the two. Tails' fur had become a glowing yellow color, and four bird-like creatures flew around him eagerly. Knuckles fur was glowing red, and his dreadlocks floated around his head. She had not yet had a chance to look at her own super form, and wondered if she looked as imposing as her two friends did.

"We're going to go help Sonic," Tails told her, "Will you be alright?"

"I think so," Cosmo responded, "Though I might need Knuckles to turn the Master Emerald off after we're done. I'm not really sure how."

Knuckles nodded and said, "Count on it!" before the two flew off to join their friend.

Shadow, Amy and Mighty all came over to watch the two fly off while Cream stayed with Rouge, who was still unconscious.

"Can you do that to us?" Shadow asked the seedrian.

"Yeah, we wanna help Sonic, too!" Amy chimed in, swinging her hammer.

"He'll need all the help he can get against that thing," Mighty finished.

"I think so," Cosmo told them, "But I'll need to draw more power from the Master Emerald first. Right now it's all I can do just to keep the Super Emeralds charged."

Shadow nodded and went back over to check on Rouge, who was beginning to wake up, while the others stared up at the massive battle in the sky.

* * *

The battle had now become three on one, with two super forms and one hyper fighting against a seemingly impenetrable machine. Tails and his birds were doing quite well at keeping the missile and laser fire at bay while Sonic and Knuckles flew around the beast hitting it from every conceivable angle, but they were still unable to find any sort of weak point. Having failed that, they decided to switch tactics. If attacking separately wouldn't work…

The two powerful beings drew back and then flew full speed right at Metal Overlord's head. They both hit in about the same spot right between his eyes, seeming to damage both of his optical sensors. The Overlord roared in pain and anger as he charged up his beam breath attack. It was his strongest attack, and thus when it hit the two heroes were sent flying. Tails flew over and caught both of them before they could get too far, and the three watched as the damage to Metal's face slowly repaired itself. Soon enough they would be back to square one.

"Well, at least now we know the best way to beat 'im" Knuckles growled.

"Yeah, but I think we're going to need some more help for this." Sonic told them.

"You called?" said Mighty as he flew up from beneath them, along with Amy and Shadow.

Shadow was in his usual super form, glowing yellow and red. Amy's fur had become a glowing pink that was so pale it was almost white, and her piko piko hammer had grown to ridiculous proportions. Finally, we have Mighty, whose shell had become a clear, diamond-like substance, and a white aura surrounded him.

Down below, Cream, Cheese and Rouge stood on either side of a very tired Cosmo. All were in super forms.

Rouge's fur had become sky blue and her outfit had changed to pure white, and while Cream's appearance had not changed aside from a white aura, her little Chao had transformed into what appeared to be an angelic version of Chaos.

"If you three wouldn't mind, I'd appreciate it if you stayed down here in case Metal Overlord attacks again. I'm really not sure how much longer I can keep this up."

"No problem, Cosmo!" Cream told her, and Cheese chirped excitedly.

Rouge nodded her head and said, "Don't give up, gal, we're almost there."

Back up top, Sonic filled everyone in on the plan. It would be impossible for everyone to hit him at once, so they decided to hit him one at a time. They all scattered to make themselves harder to hit.

The Metal Overlord looked around at the now numerous flying pests that had dared to challenge him. What could they possibly hope to accomplish? "It does not matter how many of you come against me! I WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!" he roared.

"Not THIS time!" Amy screamed as her giant hammer swung into the great machine's chest. The force left a huge dent, which immediately started to repair itself.

"OH NO YOU DON'T" Knuckles bellowed as his fists hit the dent dead center.

"This is for what you did to Cosmo and the Sea Storm!" Tails yelled as he spun his tails and kicked the same spot that Knuckles had been in before. Cracks were starting to form in the area due to the repeated hits.

"My turn!" Mighty yelled as he curled into a ball and slammed the damaged area again. The Metal Overlord was trying furiously to ward them off, but each time he tried to guard his chest the others would hit him elsewhere, and the great machine now had dents and cracks on many areas of its frame. He let out another roar as another volley of missiles fired from his back in a desperate attempt to get the pests away.

"Its time to finish this, faker!" Shadow growled as he loosed a small storm of chaos spears into the dent, which was now more like a hole.

Finally, Sonic rammed into the machine's chest head first without saying a word. The force tore through the damaged armor and then through the wires and circuits and machinery underneath. Finally, Sonic reached the robot's core, and found exactly what he expected to see. It was the body of Metal Sonic, serving as a main CPU and a conduit from the black emerald to the rest of the body.

Sonic threw out his hand and punched through Metal Sonic's chest, severely damaging his power core. The robot's eyes suddenly flared to life in absolute shock, and the two Sonics stared at each other in their final moment of enmity.

"N-No…It can't end like this… I WON'T ALLOW IT!" Metal screamed. He had absorbed most of Metal Tails' dolls when he transformed, and now he activated the bombs in all of them. His ultimate purpose was to destroy Sonic the Hedgehog. All other goals were secondary. Nothing else mattered.

The resulting blast blew all of the super forms away from the site, but Hyper Sonic, who had been transformed the longest and who was closest to the blast, was hit the hardest. It was too much for him. As he reverted to his normal form, Sonic fell toward the ocean below. He was barely conscious, now, but through hazy eyes he could just barely make out the forms of his friends still floating above him as he fell amongst Metal Overlord's remains.

_At least they were safe…_

* * *

_Author's Note: It looks like Metal Sonic's finally down for the count, but did he finally succeed in taking Sonic down too?_


	20. Vacation

_While I don't normally write anything at the beginning, here, SexyShadowGirl's question made me realize that that last chapter may have actually been a little more confusing than I meant it to be. SO:_

_Cosmo was still maintaining her control over the Super Emeralds at that point and, fearing they were all going to die if she did nothing, she used those to sort of force Tails and Knuckles into a super state, along with the others later on. I had her do this since, with the exception of Shadow, I'm pretty sure the others have never learned to transform in the Sonic X canon._

_Anyhow, on to the ending!_

**

* * *

Vacation**

Tails, Knuckles, and Amy all darted toward the falling Sonic, each knowing that he was done for if he hit the water. Even without his fear of the stuff, Sonic would likely be too exhausted to keep himself afloat. Amy was the first to reach him and caught the blue blur in her arms. Tails and Knuckles were there soon afterward, and all three stared down at the half-conscious hedgehog, who looked back at them with only half-open eyes.

"Hey, guys. Ya made it," he said weakly.

"You didn't think we were just gonna let ya drown didja?" Knuckles said.

"Not a chance!" Sonic replied with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. It was the truth, to some extent. He never thought they would _let_ him drown, just that they wouldn't be able to get there in time. He wasn't used to them having super forms, too. Sonic smiled, thinking that he should know better than to doubt his friends by now.

"Hey, guys!" Mighty yelled as he floated down to join them, "Have any of you seen Shadow? I lost track of him after the explosion, and now he's just gone!"

"That's Shadow for you," Tails told him.

"Yeah," Amy agreed, "He's even worse then Sonic when it comes to pulling disappearing acts."

They all had a good laugh about that as they flew back down to the Sea Storm. As soon as they got on deck, Cosmo released her hold on the Emeralds, causing them and everyone in the group to revert to their normal forms. The exhausted seedrian tried to jump down from the Master Emerald, but found herself falling instead.

Tails quickly flew up to catch the girl in his arms. "Are you alright, Cosmo," he asked worriedly.

"Yes," she told him, "Just a little tired, that's all."

The fox smiled at her, "I'll bet. You did great, Cosmo."

"Thank you, Tails," she said groggily. She was so tired, in fact, that she fell asleep right then and there.

"I think we could all use a little rest after today," Knuckles told them as he looked over the Master Emerald. As he had thought, the gem had powered down after Cosmo lost contact with it. It was the first time he had ever allowed someone besides himself to manipulate the Master Emerald's power, and he wanted to make sure the girl hadn't accidentally damaged it.

"You said it Knuckles!" Amy agreed, "Isn't that right, Sonic?…Sonic?" She looked down to find that he too had nodded off in her arms. She smiled and sat with him, watching her hero sleep.

**--**

Dr. Eggman stood in his lab, looking over the parts he'd found in the wreckage of Sonic's final battle with his creation. There were bits and parts from all of all of the Metal series, as well as pieces from the Sky Egg/Metal Sky. The latter machine was the only one that he intended to rebuild, since he had still not had a chance to test it out against the Green Typhoon. The other machines were just too dangerous to rebuild in Eggman's mind, but he still felt he might be able to gather useful information from their hard drives, especially Metal Sonic's. He looked back to the broken body of that particular robot once again and smiled.

"I guess the nut never falls too far from the tree, eh Metal?"

* * *

The crew of the Sea Storm was absolutely exhausted, so Tails had set a course that would take him and the others home as quickly as possible.

"Seriously, guys" Sonic said as they all lounged on the deck, "I'm gonna need a vacation just to get over this vacation!"

"Poor guy," Amy told her blue boyfriend, "don't worry, you can get plenty of rest at my house! I think we all need a little break, anyways."

"Yeah," Knuckles agreed, "I never thought I'd be so happy to get back to standing around and guarding the Master Emerald."

"Mind if I join you?" Rouge asked him, "I could use a little R and R."

"I can't wait to tell Mother about all the exciting adventures we had, Cheese!" Cream said, to which the little chao in her arms replied, "Chao chao, chao!"

"No rest for me!" Mighty laughed "I'll be back on the road before ya know it!"

"Are you going to look for Gypsy, Mighty?" the bunny asked innocently.

The armadillo shook his head, "That girl's impossible to find unless she wants to be found, and then she'll just appear like magic. No, I think I'll wander around the area you guys live in next, and then maybe head towards Soleanna. From what you've told me, it sounds like a great place to visit! I just wish I could have seen the festival."

Cream smiled at him, "Well, there's always next year!"

Tails and Cosmo were once again sitting in a lounge chair together, and were talking quietly to each other.

"Eggman'll probably be preoccupied for a while, and Sonic's probably not going to want to do anything much for a few days," Tails told the seedrian, "So when we get back, how 'bout we go out on a picnic together or something?"

"That sounds like fun, Tails," she told him, "Maybe we can have it by that waterfall in the Mystic Ruins. I really like that place." Tails nodded. That was one of his favorite spots, too.

* * *

Shadow looked out over the water at the Sea Storm as it sailed away. It was strange how his path seemed to be eternally linked to Sonic and the others. Sometimes they were allies, others they were his enemy. He vaguely wondered if one day he might actually think of them as friends. He shook his head at that thought. The black hedgehog had only ever thought of two people as his friends, and one of those had died years ago. The other was Rouge, and that was an uneasy friendship at best. No, he had always been something of a loner. But maybe, just maybe, if he lived life helping others, the way he and Maria had wanted to back on the ARK, maybe he could at least call them comrades. While Shadow hated to admit it, that bunch was very handy to have around in a pinch.

With one last look at the ship sailing into the distance, he turned from the cliff he had been standing by and strode into the future. He knew they would meet again, likely next time disaster struck, but that was a worry for another time. For now, it was about time he got on with his life. Now that he understood his past, he could stop living in it, and start writing a new chapter in his life. He didn't know what exactly he would do, but Shadow wasn't too worried. For now, maybe he would take a little vacation of his own. After all, he was immortal; he had all the time in the world.

* * *

_Author's Note: And there you have it. Another long journey comes to an end. Hope you all enjoyed it! Will there be others? Not sure if I'm going to be writing much more in the future, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see._


End file.
